THE HISTORY OF 

THE JEWS IN SPAIN, 

FROM THE TIME OF THEIR SETTLEMENT IN THAT 
COUNTRY TILL THE COMMENCEMENT OF 
THE PRESENT CENTURY. 

WRITTEN, AND ILLUSTRATED WITH DIVERS EXTREMELY SCARCE 

DOCUMENTS, 

By DON ADOLFO DE CASTRO. 
Cadiz, 1847. 



'•' At the beginning of the reign of the right Catholic spouses, so high a tone did 
the heresy assume, that the learned were on the point of preaching the law of Mcses, 
and the unlearned could not disguise their Judaism. 3 ' — Andres Berx aldfs. 



TRANSLATED BY THE 
REV. EDWARD D. G. M. KIRWAN, MA., 

FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 



(Jfamfm&ge : 

PUBLISHED BY JOHN DEIGHTON ; 
LONDON : GEORGE BELL, FLEET STREET. 

1851. 



3^ 



/ 



TBANSLATOK'S PREFACE. 

There is no nation under the sun whose history 
can be more interesting than that of the Jews, par- 
ticularly that branch of them which, after the de- 
duction of Jerusalem by Titus, emigrated to Spain, 
and for lany centuries lived in that land, which they 
regarded as their adopted country. 

In spite of the insults, the hardships, and the per- 
secutions which they endured in Spain, the sons of 
Israel cultivated the arts and sciences, fed the lamp 
of literature, and kept it continually burning for a 
succession of ages, during which it may be justly 
said that " darkness covered the greater part of 
Europe, and gross darkness the people." 

That the Jews of Spain were far more enlightened 
than the Christians and Mohammedans of that country 
will appear from the pages of this history. We can- 
not therefore be surprised that a man of such eminent 
literary attainments as Don Adolfo de Castro should 



iv translator's preface, 

devote himself to the task of writing it. Task I call 
it, for that, it really was such must be obvious to any 
one who will give himself the trouble of looking at 
the numerous authorities (cited in the notes to this 
Translation) which the Author had to consult ; and 
although this is but a brief history of the Spanish 
Jews, I make no doubt that its brevity is mainly 
owing to circumstances over which Don Adolfo had 
no controul, viz. want of books, records, and documents 
to throw a light upon it, some of which were in all 
probability burned, and some carried away from Spain 
by the Jews at the time of their expulsion from that 
kingdom by Ferdinand the Unprincipled, otherwise 
called the Catholic. 

The Author of this work has been for some years 
advantageously known to his countrymen by his literary 
merits, and within the last twelve months a work 
of his, entituled " The History of the Persecution of the 
Protestants by Philip the Second" has been translated 
into English by Mr. Parker; to which, perhaps, my 
translation of the " History of the Jews in Spain" 
may be regarded as a suitable accompaniment. 

Don Adolfo de Castro, unable to defend Queen 
Isabella's conduct in establishing the Inquisition, en- 
deavours to palliate it by saying that she acted in 



translator's preface, V 

compliance with her husbands wishes and the counsels 
of her confessor! 

But is such compliance as this to be accepted as an 
excuse for a gross violation of God's laws ? Are we to 
be told that a woman, who, pandering to the avarice 
of a worthless husband and the fanaticism of an 
ignorant confessor, consents to the foundation of a 
tribunal calculated to deluge her native land with 
the blood of thousands of her innocent subjects, and 
to unjustly deprive the heirs of the unhappy victims 
of their property, is a person of an amiable and gentle 
disposition ? 

Vain is the attempt which English as well as 
Spanish and Portuguese writers have made to throw 
a false colouring upon this act of Queen Isabella! 
The false colouring has worn off and exposed to 
view the dirt and filth which lay beneath it. The 
damning act is written with an iron pen in indelible 
characters ! 

Does the youthful Queen who now sways the 
sceptre of the Spanish monarchy desire to transmit 
her name to posterity as that of the most upright 
sovereign who ever sat on the throne of a noble 
kingdom? Then, let it be her first act to make 
reparation to the Jews for the wrongs done to their 



iv translator's preface, 

race by her ancestors, and especially by her name- 
sake : let her blot out from the statute-books of Spain 
every penal law that affects the Israelites : let her 
invite them back to the land which they still regard 
as the land of their adoption, and confer upon them 
greater privileges than they have ever enjoyed in 
any country since the time of their general dispersion. 

In the Appendix is given a letter, purporting to 
have been written to Philip the Second by Arias 
Montano, entituled " Instruction for Princes/' &c, 
which, as the reader will see by note 4 to page 
262, is a forged one : although this will not affect 
the credit of the history, (inasmuch as no fact men- 
tioned in it rests on the authority of the " Instruction," 
which was published for the purpose of confirming the 
Author's opinions about the Jesuits,) it is much to 
be regretted that he should have printed it. Were 
I to consult my own inclination I should suppress it, 
but it strikes me that, were I to do so, I should be 
disingenuous ; and were I to publish it without stating 
it to be a forgery, I should be still more disingenuous. 

The Author of this history has omitted, in general, 
to give the authorities from which his information 
is derived, a defect which I have endeavoured to 
supply; but owing to my having been obliged to 



translator's preface. vii 

grope my way in the dark, and to the difficulty of 
procuring Spanish books, my success, though greater 
than I had expected, has not been such as I could 
wish. 

Wherever I have had access to the works cited 
by the Author, I have verified his quotations, except 
in one instance , (see note 59, page 151), in which 
he has, perhaps, inadvertently referred to a wrong 
authority. 

In order to avoid the introduction of foreign idioms, 
as far as possible, into my translation, I placed my 
manuscript in the hands of a friend (one of the 
Fellows of Trinity College), not acquainted with the 
Spanish language, who has kindly read the greater 
part of it, and, at his suggestion, I have made many 
alterations, which are, I trust, improvements. 

To another friend, W. G. Clark, Esq., Fellow 
of Trinity College, my best thanks are due for having 
procured me a copy of Don Adolfo de Castro's work. 

King's College, Cambridge , July oth, 1851. 



ERRATA. 



PAGE 

2, note 1 } for Espanola read de Espaiia. 
6. substitute figure 4 for the asterisk. 
8, note 10, for 30 read 15 

8, note 16, the words after Espana should be in brackets. 
19, note 27, last line, dele Book. 

28, note 38, last line, for 1 read 2. 

29, line 10, for burying read buying. 

31, note 42, line 1, for Pandilla read Pad ilia. 
39, line 14, dele but. 

49, the last sentence of note 52 should be in brackets. 
59, note 9, the words after 1677 should be in brackets. 
70, note 24, last line, after paragraph insert except thai of 1335 : see 
following note. 

73, ninth line of the note, for slain read mortally xcounded. 
80. last line of the text, dele 22. 

80, the last sentence of note 23, including the word Translator, 
should be in rectangular brackets. 
100, note 61, line 3, dele from 
120, line 9, for Aragon read Arragon. 
140, note 43, line 2, for his holiness read His Holiness. 
172, line 8, for porutray read pouHray . 
207, line 11, for however read how 

221, 8th line of the text and 2nd line of note 20, for Teixera read 

Teixeira. 
224, line 11, dele 27. 

255, line 16, for affrontery read effrontery. 



SUMMARY OF BOOK THE FIRST. 



Introduction. — Settlement of the Jews in Spain in Nebuchad- 
nezzar's time, fabulous. — Apocryphal character of the letter said 
to have been sent to Jerusalem by the synagogue of Toledo, to 
protest against the execution of Jesus Christ. — Idle tales which 
grew out of this fiction. — Real settlement of the Jews in the 
Spanish peninsula. — Resolution against them by the fathers of 
the council of Elliberis. — Arrival of the Goths in Spain. — Liberty 
the Jews enjoyed there as long as the former continued to be 
Arians. — Recaredo is converted to Catholicism. — Decree of the 
third council of Toledo against the Jews. — Persecution of them 
in the days of king Sisebuto. — Decrees of the councils of Toledo 
in the reigns of Chintila, Recesvinto, and Ejica. — Protection said 
to have been afforded to the Jews by king Witiza, fabulous. — 
The Jews of Spain concert a plan with their brethren of Africa 
for the invasion and reduction of the peiiinsula by the Arabs. — 
Arrival of the latter and battle of the Guadalete, in which the 
flower of the Gothic nobility is cut off. — The Jews assist the 
Arabs in their enterprises ; garrison the principal cities which 
were conquered by the latter ; regain their liberty. 



BOOK THE FIRST. 

I am about to treat of the chequered and almost- 
always-tragic fortunes of the Jews in Spain : a history 
replete, not with glorious conquests, signal feats of 
valor and lofty aims, but with calamities, conflicts 3 
persecutions, riots,, robberies, conflagrations, banish- 

B 



2 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



ments, deaths by fire on public scaffolds, losses of 
caste, 1 imprisonments, degradations, and other ex- 
tremely rigorous punishments. 

Herein I shall demonstrate the unreasonableness of 
those writers who corrupted the truth, and described, 
and still describe, the ancient Spanish Jews as men 
utterly given up to usury and accustomed to hide in 
the bowels of the earth the fruit of their labours, their 
commerce, and their acquisitions ; whereas it is to them 
that Spain owes the great advancement she made in 
medicine^ philosophy, mathematics, and navigation* 
They were in the habit of being consulted by kings 
on the most critical affairs of state, and it was by the 
aid of their counsels and hard cash that the most difficult, 
the grandest, and the most hazardous enterprises were 
undertaken. 

I shall also point out the great error as well as 

1 Literally, infamies of lineages. Persons descended, or supposed 
to be descended, from those who have in them any mixture of Jewish 
or Moorish blood, or descended, or supposed to be descended, from 
ancestors convicted by the tribunal of the Inquisition are, to this day, 
more or less looked down upon in Spain ; but this illiberal prejudice 
is gradually wearing away. Pedro Salazar de Mendoza, in his Mo- 
narquia Espanola (lib. in. cap. 1), speaking of the council of the 
Inquisition (of which he was a member), and the persons con- 
nected with that tribunal, says : " they are all, from the Inquisitor 
General down to the porters and servants who attend and wait upon 
them, old Christians, pure and in no wise descended from Jews, 
Moors, or persons who have had penance imposed upon them by 
the same holy office." The original words are, " Son todos desde 
el Inquisidor General hasta los porteros y familiares que les sirven 
y acompanan, Cristianos viejos, limpios, sin raza ni descendencia de 
Judios, Moros 6 penitenciados por el mismo Santo Oficio." — Trans- 
lator. 



I.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 3 

injustice which the Catholic Sovereigns 2 committed^ 
when they ordered the Jews to be banished from the 
realms of Spain, and shall support my opinion by 
showing the extreme impolicy of a measure which 
must, necessarily, be attended with such fatal results, 
and exhibit the utter fruitlessness and futility of per- 
secutions, punishments, and other severities for re- 
ligion's sake : for monarchs may, indeed, by the arm 
of the law, coerce the bodies of their subjects, but they 
will find it an easier task to check the winds and turn 
back the courses of rivers, than to subdue the minds 
of men. I write this history dispassionately and im- 
partially — passion and partiality belong not to me. I 
neither am a Jew, nor a descendant from Judaizers. 
My sole aim is to stand up for the truth — a rule by 
which every historian ought to be guided: and the 
truth cannot be endangered by my pen, as I am not 
in the habit of viewing things with prejudiced eyes : 
this is a practice quite inconsistent with my notions. 

Some writers have mentioned the prosperity and 
adversity of the Spanish Jews, and there has been 
no want of great geniuses who have treated of the 
times of the expulsion of the latter ; but, owing to 
their fear of the Catholic sovereigns, while these were 
living, and after their deaths, to their own hatred of 
every thing that concerned the Jewish nation^-a hatred 

2 This expression is emphatically applied by Spaniards to Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella : in the original it is Reyes Catolicos, i. e. Catholic 
kings, but as it means a King and Queen, I thought it would be better 
to render it as I have &otiq. — Translator. 



4 HISTORY OF [BK. 

imbibed at their mothers' breasts — hardly any of them 
have cut out their stories according to the measure of 
truth. 

Hence it was that men of high birth, and reputation 
for prudence, of singular virtue, and eminence in sci- 
ence, allowed themselves to be borne down the stream 
of a thousand follies and extravagances, arrived at a 
pitch of extreme blindness, and did irreparable damage 
to history and literature : from which it is evident that 
neither studies, nor brilliancy of talent, nor science 
suffice to create wisdom in man, but only serve to 
ransom his spirit from the dungeon in which it has 
been imprisoned from his childhood, purified from 
the corruption and poison of vulgar doctrines which 
it has imbibed, through the ignorance of his parents 
and teachers. 

The information we have respecting the settlement 
of the Jews in Spain is infected with many great 
errors, since persons of great learning and historical 
credit have relied on fables told by the low and ig- 
norant populace, and on documents forged, either from 
interested motives or from a vain desire to have both 
the documents and the lies contained in them believed. 

It is related by some writers that Nebuchadnezzar, 
king of Babylon, after he had levelled proud Jeru- 
salem's walls, and carried the Israelitish people into 
captivity, followed up his victorious enterprises with 
the destruction of Tyre and Egypt, and the towns 
situated on the African shores. After he had taken 
yet ance on the Phenicians, and had exacted satis- 



I.] THE JEWS in SPAIN. 5 

faction from them for succouring the Tyrians while 
he was hemming in the latter with an obstinate block- 
ade, he invaded the Spanish territory, vanquished its 
inhabitants, and left there a large number of Jews, 
who travelled with his army, and laid the foundations 
of Toledo, Seville, and other very ancient cities. 3 Ter- 
tullian, Eusebius of Cesarea, St. Clement of Alexandria, 
as well as other authors, treat largely of the conquests 
made and marches undertaken by Nebuchadnezzar, 
through Libya and all Asia as far as Armenia ; not 
one of whom speaks of his arrival in the Spanish 
peninsula, and his capture of it by fire and sword. 
And even if such forcible reasons and arguments could 
be adduced as should serve to prove clearly that he 
acquired these lands by force of arms and power, there 
exist much stronger reasons for believing that no Jews 
went thither with his army. The perpetual enmity and 
discord that existed between the Jews and Assyrians, 
especially in religious matters, are proved by the testi- 
mony of the grave and authentic historian Flavins 
Josephus. While they lived together, their minds 
were alienated from one another by blind rancour 
and hostility : the former were dissatisfied with the 
state of slavery and misery to which they were re- 
duced ; the latter were disgusted at the repeated in- 
juries they suffered, without a murmur, at the hands 
of those very men whom they had burdened with the 
yoke of a wearisome captivity. It is, therefore, im- 

3 Garibay's Compendio Historial, lib. v. cap. 4; Mariana's Hist, 
Gen. de Espana, lib. i. cap. 17. — Translator. 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



possible to suppose that Nebuchadnezzar would take 
with his army, in his extremely bold march through 
Africa and Spain, such terrible and such troublesome 
enemies as these ; and, still more so, that he would 
leave in their power the lands which he had acquired 
at the expense of the blood, sweat, and toils of his 
subjects. 

Other historians assert that some Jews came to Spain 
about this time with Pyrrhus their captain, 4 and built 
towns in two places — one of them was Toledo, the other 
Lucina or Lucena. But all these accounts are many 
miles away from the truth. The best established and 
only true story is, that those who escaped death at 
the capture of Jerusalem, were brought in chains tG 
Babylon. This is the account given in the books of 
Kings and Chronicles. 

Those who have wished to prove the fact that the 
Jews settled in Spain after the latter were subdued 
by the arms of Nebuchadnezzar,* relate that they had 
synagogues in the most considerable cities of the Spanish 
peninsula, of which the head and first in dignity was 
the one at Toledo. They go on to state that when 
Jesus Christ commenced preaching at Jerusalem, the 
Scribes and Pharisees determined to destroy Him, and 

4 Strabo says that Nebuchadnezzar penetrated beyond the pillars 
of Hercules, and led an army from Spain into Thrace and Pontus 
(book xy.). Josephus also states that he (Nebuchadnezzar) con- 
quered Ttjw 9 I(3iipiav> or, as It is in the Latin Tersion, which is of equal 
authority, bonam partem Hispa?iice. (Antiquities, book x. chap. 11.) 
For this story of Pyrrhus, &c., see Garibay's Compendio Historian 
lib. t. cap. 4. — Translator . 



I.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 7 

that (as in matters of the greatest difficulty they were 
accustomed to consult with all the synagogues in the 
world in order to ask their advice and consent,) they 
dispatched to the chief of the synagogue of Toledo 
letters from the chiefs and priests by the hand of their 
messenger, one Samuel. The Jews of Toledo met in 
council and in the names of the other synagogues in 
Spain, from which they had received full powers, after 
hearing read to them the letters of one Eleazar, a priest 
of their ow^n country and a man of holy life, who had 
gone on business of his own to Jerusalem, and had 
been witness to, and had a high esteem for, the life 
and miraculous acts of Jesus, answered, that the Spanish 
Jews could not allow their brethren of Jerusalem to 
take away the life of Jesus Christ. The answer, they 
say, was afterwards found at Toledo, when Don Alfonso 
the Sixth rescued this city from the power of the 
Moors ; it was written in the Hebrew tongue, and 
afterwards translated into Arabic by order of a wise 
Moorish king, named Galifre : the former monarch 
ordered it to be put into the Castilian language of 
the day, and it was preserved till the year 1494 in 
the archives of Toledo, whence it was carried off by 
the Jews when they were expelled from Spain. 

This fiction, for such I consider it to be, has ob- 
tained credit with many very good writers who were 
deceived by the forger of the document, as for instance," 
Don Fray Prudencio de Sandoval, 5 Arias Montano, 6 

5 Historia de los Reyes de Castilla y de Leon, &c. 

6 Commentaria in xn. Prophetas. 



8 



HISTORY OF 



Dr. Juan de Vergara/ Dr. Francisco Pisa/ Fray Juan 
de Pineda/ Quintana Duenas/ Eodrigo Caro/ 1 Tamayo 
de Vargas/ 2 Francisco de Padilla/ 3 Don Jose de Pel- 
licer/ 4 Don Diego de Castejon/ 5 Eodrigo Mendez de 
Silva/ 6 and many others whom, to avoid prolixity. I 
omit. For the credit of Spanish literature, I must say 
that several distinguished writers, including the Mar- 
quis of Mondejar and the very learned Nicolas Antonio, 
as well as other excellent critics, have regarded the 
story as apocryphal. Here follows what people would 
have us believe to be the translation of the letter in 
the language of the day in Don Alfonso the Sixth's 
time. 

" Levi, chief of the synagogue (archisinagogo), 
and Samuel, and Joseph, good men of the Aljama 
of Toledo, to Eleazar, great High- Priest, and Samuel 
Canut y Anas, and Caiaphas } good men of the Al- 

7 Historia de Toledo publicada por Pedro Alcocer. 

s Historia de Toledo. l a parte [cap. 23. Pisa thinks that Nebu- 
chadnezzar marched into Spain, but that he did not take any 
Hebrews thither. He is of opinion, however, that some of that 
race settled hi the neighbourhood of Toledo many years before our 
Saviour's passion. — Translator .] 

9 MonarquAa Eclesiastica, &c. 

10 Santos de Toledo, siglo i° de la ley de gracia. [cap. 1. In the 
second chapter he gives his opinion of this letter, and quotes the 
chronicle of Julian the archpriest, mentioned below at page 30. — 
Translator. ] 

«, 11 Antiguedades, &c. de Sevilla. 

12 Novedades antiguas. 

13 Historia Eclesiastica de Esparia. [vol i. fol. 16. — Translator. ] 

14 Lecciones solemnes a las obras de Gongora. 

15 Primacia de la Santa Iglesia de Toledo. 

16 Poblacion General de Esparia, fols. 10, 11. — Translator. 



I.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 9 

jama of the Holy La?icl, salvation through the God of 
Israel. 

" The letters that ye sent us, wherein ye in- 
formed us how matters stood with the prophet of 
Nazareth, were brought to us by your man Azarias, 
a doctor of law, who saith that the prophet worketh 
many miracles. One Samuel, son of Amasias, passed 
through this city not long since, and gave us an 
account of many kind acts done by this man, who, 
according to his statement, is a humble and meek 
person, and talketh to the afflicted : he doeth good 
to every body ; and when they do wrong to him, he 
wrongeth not any one : he dealeth boldly with proud 
and evil men, and ye are so wicked as to bear ill-will 
to him, because he told you your misdeeds to your 
faces. Now, as ye bore this ill-will towards him, 
we enquired of the former man in what year, month, 
or day he [the prophet] was born, and he told us. 
We found that it was on the day of His nativity 
that three suns were seen in these parts, which 
gradually became but one sun ; and when our 
fathers observed the miracle, they, on consideration, 
proclaimed that the Messiah was soon about to be 
born, nay, that He was, perhaps, already born. 
Reflect, brethren, whether He have already come, 
and been rejected by you. The aforesaid man like- 
wise informed us, on his father's authority, that cer- 
tain magi, men of great wisdom, arrived in the Holy 
Land at the time of His nativity, and enquired for 
the place where the holy Child was born, and that 



10 HISTORY OF [BK. 

your king Herod considered with himself, and assem- 
bled the wise men of his city, and asked where the 
Infant should be born, for whom the magi were 
enquiring, and they answered him, In Bethlehem 
of Jadcea, according to the prophecy of Micah 
de Pergino, and that those magi declared that they 
had been led from afar to the Holy Land by a star 
of exceeding brightness. Consider whether it be 
not the fulfilment of this prophecy, Kings shall sing 
and walk in the brightness of His birth. Take heed, 
moreover, that ye do not persecute Him whom ye are 
bound to honour highly and to receive with good 
will, but be well advised. We tell you that we 
cannot, either by counsel or will, consent to His 
death, for were we to do so, then to us would 
the prophecy apply, which saith, They shall assem- 
ble with one consent against the Lord and against 
His Messiah. And we advise you, wise though ye 
be, that, in so weighty a matter as this, ye proceed 
with caution, lest the God of Israel, in His wrath 
with you, should destroy the second house 6f your 
second temple ; for be ye well assured that it will 
soon be destroyed, and this was the reason why our 
ancestors who came out of the captivity in Babylon 
(under the guidance of Pyrrhus their captain, who 
was sent by king Cyrus, and who brought them out 
with great riches which he carried away from Baby- 
lon, in the sixty-ninth year of the captivity, and they 
received protection from the pagans of Toledo), 
built a large Aljama, and would not return again 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



11 



to Jerusalem. — Toledo, fourteenth day of the month 
Nisan ; era of Cesar, eighteen, and of Augustus 
Octavianus, seventy-one." 17 

The following are the grounds on which I support 
my opinion that this letter is an entire fiction, namely, 
on the fact that at the time of Jesus Christ's death there 
were no Jews living in Spain ; on the improbability 
and absurdity of the supposition that the Jews of 
Jerusalem should hold a conference with their brethren 
who were scattered throughout the world ; and lastly, 
on the assertion of all w T ho believe in the genuineness 
of the document, that it was translated into Spanish at 
the time when Toledo was conquered by Alfonso the 
Sixth, for in this age all documents were written in 
Latin. In addition to this, the translation of this docu- 
ment is written in a barbarous language, a confused 
medley of ancient and modern Castilian, with a smatter- 
ing of Portuguese and Gallician. 18 

There cannot be the slightest doubt that this letter 
originated in the desire to make the Jews appear less 
odious than they were in the eyes of the people and 
even of the nobility, and the wish to mitigate the cruel 
persecutions they suffered in modern times by the tri- 

17 This letter is published by Sandoval in his Historia de los 
Keyes, &c. (see reign of Alonso the Sixth), but he says that he 
does not know what amount of credit to attach to it. — Translator. 

18 Let those who wish to have their ears tickled with the sound 
of this beautiful jargon, go to Vigo or Tuy, both of them towns in 
Gallicia, for a few days, and they will have a fine opportunity of 
putting the delicacy of their auricular organs to the test. I speak 
from experience.— Translator. 



12 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



bunal of the Holy Office. I formed this opinion after 
reading the accounts of several authors who assert that 
the descendants of those Jews of the synagogue of 
Toledo who raised their voices against the execution 
of Jesus Christ, deserved to be rewarded and esteemed 
as good men. 

Father Juan de Pineda, in his Monarquia Eclesi- 
astica, writes as follows : " The Jews who lived at 
Toledo were not at Jerusalem at the time of our 
Redeemer's passion, nor did they consent to it. Such 
being the case, they may boast of the highest lineage 
in the world ; for nobility of blood depends on the per- 
sonal excellence of parentage, as well as on privileges 
and honours conferred by princes. And the founders 
of the house of Israel, to wit, Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, were very eminent men and more highly 
honoured by God than any who have been born into 
the world. Therefore, as many persons of Jewish 
descent as shall prove that their ancestors in no wise 
consented to the Redeemer's death (on the score of 
w r hich they forfeited their nobility (hidalguia)), and 
believed in Him, like Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and some 
others, must, without question, equally with those an- 
cestors, be of the highest lineage in the world.' 519 

Father Quintana Duenas, in his Singularia, a post- 
humous work, launches out still further in his account 
of the merits of all that proved descent from the Jews 

19 Francisco de Padilla, in his Historia Eclesiastica, vol. i. fol. 2, 
speaks of Pineda and refers to this passage, of which he quotes the 
substance, though not the exact words. — Translator. 



I ] THE JEWS IX SPA IN. 13 

who opposed the death of Jesus ; for he says they 
ought to be honoured with admission to the military 
orders, and be preferred to ecclesiastical dignities. As 
his words are very quaint, I give a translation of them 
from their original Latin : 20 " I shall not forbear to 
remark that if any one shall prove his descent from 
that family of the Hebrews which in no wise consented 
to Christ's death, and it shall appear that the said family 
did oppose it, and after the publication of the law of 
grace did not relapse to Judaism, he may be admitted 
to ecclesiastical orders and dignities, and not only re- 
ligious, but military ones, even though by the statutes 
of both, persons of Hebrew extraction are excluded 
from admission to them." 

There is nothing extraordinary in the supposition 
that after the Jews were expelled from Spain, those 
who reluctantly received baptism and remained under 
the disguise of Christians, on seeing the contempt in 
which such were holden as were descended from the 
converts, should forge this document and should spread 
these notices to exalt their pedigree, by thus flattering 
the affections of the vulgar, the learned, and even their 
very persecutors and enemies. 

20 Singularia moralis Theologiee ad quinque praecepta ecclesise 
necnon ad ecclesiasticas censuras et poenas; opus postnuniuin, 
Madrid, 16-52. 

Tandem non desinam He adnotare quod si aliquis probaret se ex 
ea Hebrseorum familia descendere quae nullo modo niorti Christi 
assensum praebuisset, imrno et contradixisse constaret, nee etiam 
post promulgatam gratise legem in Judaismum incidisset, posset 
quidem admit ti ad ordines ae dignitates ecclesiasticas, necnon ad 
religiones quascunque etiam inilitares, quantunrris illee a suo gremio 



li HISTORY OF [BK. 

The words of these authors prove the weakness arid 
blindness of human reason, and its readiness to twist 
and turn the tempers of mortals in such a manner as to 
make them hate what they most love, and love what 
they most abhor. For. as men ? s opinions are almost 
always swayed by the force of passions, they experience 
more changes than the sea or the moon: and as they 
clash to the ground whatever accords not exactly with 
their own sentiments, so do they praise up to the skies 
whatever agrees with their natural disposition and tem- 
per. Thus they who once abhorred all that observed 
the law of Moses and refused the descendants of the 
latter admission to ecclesiastical dignities and military 
orders, would now throw the door wide open to therm 
owing to a mere fiction that was pleasing in their eyes. 
Such is the effect of a notice which carries with it the 
appearance of truth, and has the good fortune to obtain 
credit with persons of illustrious birth; established fame, 
and eminence in the literary world ! 

By means of the credit given [by such persons] to 
the letter which stated that the Spanish Hebrews, and 
particularly those of the kingdom of Toledo, though 
earnestly solicited by their brethren of Jerusalem, re- 
fused to lend their vote and consent to Christ's death, 
other lies were invented which met with an equally 
favourable reception. One of these was the assertion 
that, in the year 3 3. the Jews sent to Jerusalem two 
messengers, named Athanasius and Joseph, to make 
a verbal protest in the name of the Toledan and all 
other Jews in Spain, with the intent to obstruct the 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



15 



designs of the Scribes and Pharisees. It is also falsely 
asserted that, after Christ's crucifixion, the chief of the 
synagogue (archisinagoga) of Toledo sent a second em- 
bassy to Jerusalem with letters to most holy Mary and 
St. Peter, desiring them to instruct the bearers of them 
in the Christian faith ; which letters were brought by 
Saints Indalecio and Eufrasio. Then, say they, Elea- 
zar, who held the office of president of the Spanish 
synagogue and people in Sion, wrote to the brethren 
of Toledo to inform them of the death of Jesus, which 
was caused by the machinations of Annas and Caiaphas, 
and that a holy man named James, son of Zebedee, was 
coming to preach the law of grace in Spain. 

In the lying chronicle, printed as the work of Julian, 
high-priest of Santa Justa, is inserted the following 
apocryphal letter, of which a translation from the Latin 
is here given for the amusement of the curious. 

LETTER FROM ELEAZAR TO THE SYNAGOGUE OF 

TOLEDO. 21 

" Eleazar, president of the Spanish synagogue and 
people at Jerusalem, and the elders of his council, to 
Levi, president of the council of Toledo, and to the 
elders Samuel and Joseph, solvation through the God 
of Israel. 

" Know, my brethren, that a just man, named 
Jesus of Nazareth, preacheth in this city of Jeru- 
salem, worketh many miracles, raiseth the dead, 

21 Santos de Toledo por Quintana Duenas, siglo 1° de la ley de 
gracia, cap. 1°. — Translator. 



16 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



healeth lepers, giveth sight to the blind, feet to 
the lame, use of limbs to the paralytic : He is a 
universal benefactor, a man that is humble, com- 
passionate, grave, fairer than the children of men, 
affable, mighty in deeds, and in all His actions su- 
perior to the rest of the human race : many venerate 
Him as the Messiah. John, the son of Zachariah, 
pointed Him out to us with his finger, and said, 
This is the Lamb of God. We have refused to give 
our consent to His death, which was compassed by 
Annas and Caiaphas and the chief-priests, and give 
you this intimation, in order that neither ye nor any 
of the twelve tribes who chance to live in Spain, may 
approve of so sacrilegious an act. Remember how 
Haman gave command that not only our ancestors, 
but many other Hebrews also who were scattered 
about in divers places, should suffer death igno- 
miniously on the gallows, and how God finally 
ordered it that the man himself should be hanged 
on the one he had prepared for our father Mor- 
decai. Our fathers received letters from Artaxerxes, 
by which they learnt at once that the weeks of 
Daniel were very soon to be accomplished, in which 
the Holy One should die, if He were not already 
dead ! Remember, too, how our fathers were warned 
by Daniel when he was in Babylon (whence by his 
order and arrangement they came to Spain), and how 
he foretold to them the death of the Holy One, on 
account of which the temple of Jerusalem was to be 
destroyed, and how ill an opinion Jeremiah and 



I.] THE JEWS IX SPAIN. 17 

other prophets entertained of the Jews that re- 
mained at Jerusalem, and would not go down to 
Egypt with Jeremiah himself ; 22 while they speak 
favourably of the good Jews whom God sent to 
Spain. In short, I beg of you, should certain Jews 
of Jerusalem, now about to proceed to Spain, arrive 
there with letters, not to receive such persons ; or, 
if ye receive any one, let that one be James the son 
of Zebedee, and none other : he is a good man and 
a disciple of Christ crucified, Who, according to His 
disciples, hath already risen again. Receive this man 
kindly, as well as the other disciples of the Apostles. 
God preserve you. — Jerusalem, fifth of the month 
Nisan." 

Many writers enlarge so much upon this apocryphal 
letter as to relate other equally extraordinary false- 
hoods and events, which, to avoid tarnishing my his- 
tory with the account of additional errors, I pass over 
in silence. 

As I am now about to enter upon matters which 
have been more clearly established by the writings of 
learned men, I affirm that the Israelites, during the 
Roman supremacy in Spain, had very little information 
respecting the countries of the west, or what went on 
in them : for as they neither lived on the sea-coast, nor 
were in the habit of making voyages from one place to 
another for the purpose of selling their merchandise, 

22 It is strange that the forgers of this letter should make Jeremiah 
and other prophets state precisely the reverse of -what ^ve read in their 
prophecies respecting such as should go down to "Egypt.— Translator , 

C 



18 HISTORY OF [BK. 

nor fatigued themselves with pilgrimages all over the 
world for the sake of seeing new regions, new people, 
or new customs, they were only acquainted with such 
kingdoms as bordered on their own ; and this acquaint- 
ance arose partly from the proximity of those kingdoms. 
BSxd partly from wars and cruel discords originating in 
conflicting interests. 

When the Jews were informed of the achievements 
of the Romans, and found that the latter had discovered 
in the heart of Spain so many and such large gold and 
silver mines, they sent messengers 23 to congratulate them 
on their victories and prosperity, and at the same time 
to make a friendlv League with such valiant folks. 
They did not come to Spain, but went direct to Rome, 
and took with them commendatory letters addressed to 
the kings of Asia and Europe, through whose territories 
they would have to travel in order to execute their 
mission. And though, on this occasion, the Jews made 
a treaty of amity with Rome, there is no record to prove 
that any of them remained and lived in that city, which 
was then the mistress of the world. So say Flavins 
Josephus and Justin. 24 

Xor, in those days, were the Jews in the habit of 
travelling to Greece, though this country was so near 
to them ; for there is no writer of that time who says 
a word about the acts of the Hebrews. 

23 First Book of Maccabees, eh. viii. — Translator. 

24 " A Demetrio etim deseivissent" (Judsi), amicitia Piomanorum 
pefita. Sec. — Justin, lib. xxxvi. cap. 3. 

See 1 Maccabees yiii., and Josephus' Antiquities, lib. xii. chap. 17. 

— Translator^. 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



19 



When, by means of the dissensions existing between 
Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, Pompey the Great 20 ob- 
tained possession of Jerusalem and made Judea tribu- 
tary (this was sixty-three years before the birth of 
Christ), some Israelites went to Rome, and many others 
were afterwards carried thither by Gabinius and Cras- 
sus : 26 this accounts for the large number of them in 
that city, 27 and for the service which they rendered 
Pompey in his wars with Julius Cesar. 

The emperor Augustus showed them much kindness, 
inasmuch as he allowed them to live in a quarter sepa- 
rated from Pome by the 'opposite bank of the Tiber — 
the first settlement they ever acquired in Europe. But ? 
owing to the bad use they made of this privilege, in the 
time of Tiberius Cesar they were expelled from the 
city, and the consuls raised four thousand soldiers out 
of them to be sent to Sardinia. And those who, from 
religious or other motives, disobeyed the rigorous com- 

25 Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv. cap. 8 ; Tacit. Hist. lib. v. cap. 9 ; Flor, 
Rer. Roman, lib. in. cap. 5 ; Epit. lib. deperd. Liv. en. — Translator. 

23 I think the word Craso, in the original, is a misprint for Casio. 
Crassus marched direct from Jerusalem to Parthia, where he perished 
with all his army. I do not find it expressly stated, either by Jo- 
sephus or the Roman authors, that Gabinius or Cassius brought any 
Jews with them to Rome ; the Jewish historian, however, asserts 
that, " upon the capture of Tarichese by Cassius," that general 
" carried thirty thousand Jews into slavery," but does not mention 
whither they were taken. {Jewish War 'Booh, lib. r. cap. 6.) — Translator. 

27 It appears from the oration pro Flacco, that in the time of Cicero, 
who was murdered B.C. 43, there was a flourishing community of 
Jews in Italy, " cum aurum, Judceorum nomine quotannis ex Italia. . . 
Hierosolymam exportari soleret, &c." (Cicero, pro L. Flacco, cap. 28.) 
— Translator. 

c2 



^0 



HISTORY 0? 



mands of the emperor, and refused to enter upon mili- 
tary service, were punished with death. 23 

There are no records to prove the existence of any 
Jews in Spain in those times. Strabo, speaking of the 
dispersion of the Jews in different parts of the world, 
gives a detailed account of the provinces which they 
inhabited, but makes no mention of Spain : neither 
does xlgrippa in the letter he wrote to the emperor 
Caius Caligula in behalf of the Hebrews, although he 
takes particular notice in it of all the places where they 
were settled* 

It was in the seventieth year of the Christian era, 
after the destruction of Jerusalem by the emperor 
Titus, son of Vespasian, that the Jews spread them- 
selves all over the world, and consequently came to 
swell the population of Spain : here they neither 
founded cities nor gave names to them, as some have 
asserted, without sufficient reason. They came, like 
conquered persons, to receive protection from others, 
not to build ramparts for themselves, In the cities 
which they were allowed to enter, they lived for many 
years mingled with the natives and other inhabitants : 
and after that, by dint of hard labour, they had amassed 
riches, they made separate barriers that they might the 
better enjoy the comforts of life, and hold congregations 

2i Suetonius says they were ordered to quit the city under the 
penalty of perpetual bondage > in case of disobedience : his words are, 
<s Judasorurn juventutem, per specieni sacramenti, in provincias gra- 
vioris cceli distribuit : reliquos gentis ejusdem vel similia sectantes 
urbe submoTit, sub poena perpetuus servitutis, nisi obtenip eras sent." 
(Suet, in Yita Tib. Cees. cap. xxxyi.) — Translator.. 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN, 



21 



in their synagogues with the more perfect freedom. 
The majority of the Jews who went to Spain lost their 
own language, and were very easily reconciled to the 
vernacular tongue of the country ; and this is the reason 
why, according to Dr. Bernardo Aldrete, 29 so few He- 
brew words have been engrafted on our language, for 
we should, unquestionably, have had more of them had 
the Jews continued to use their own, and transmitted 
it to their descendants and the inhabitants of the cities 
in which they lived. 

A very short time elapsed ere the peace of the Jews 
was disturbed. In the year 303, the bishops, assembled 
in council at Elliberis, 30 forbad communication, dealings 
or contracts with them, as far as possible, alleging as 
a reason that the Jews were striving with most active 
and urgent importunities to bring over the people to 
the law of Moses. Moreover, they (the bishops) thun- 
dered anathemas against all who should eat in company 
with the Israelites, and all who should allow the latter 
to bless the fruits which the lands of the Christians 
yielded spontaneously. 

In the opinion of some, these canons afford a 
strong argument to prove that the number of the 
Jews then living in Spain was exceedingly large ; 
but in the laws of the Visigoths, the collection of 
which is called Fuero Juzgo, I find a still stronger 

29 See Antigiiedades de Espana, &c, por Bernardo Aldrete, lib. ii. 
cap. 8. — Translator. 

30 See 49th and 50th canons as given in Francisco Padilla's Historia 
Eclesiastica. — Translator. 



22 HISTORY OF [BK. 

one for holding the contrary opinion. In these statutes 
we learn how they divided the Peninsula : the Goths 
took two-thirds of it for themselves, and left one-third 
to the Romans ; for by this name were the Spaniards 
of that time known to them. One of the statutes al- 
luded to runs thus : " The partition of the mountain 
lands made between the Goths and the Romans must 
not, in any wise, be broken, provided the boundary 
can be proved. The Romans must not take nor lay 
claim to any portion of the two-thirds belonging to the 
Goths, nor the Goths to the remaining third which 
belongs to the Romans." 31 Whereby we see how small 
was the number of Jews then dwelling in Spain, when 
no notice of them is taken in this partition — a silence 
which could not have been observed had they been 
many in number. 

Let not persons who hold the opposite opinion try 
to weaken this argument by saying that the Goths 
looked down upon the Hebrews with supreme con- 
tempt and disdain, nor ask why the former should 
apportion lands to folks in such little esteem with them 
as the latter, as being persons who were gaining a more 
comfortable subsistence by trading, whereas they could 
not reap the fruits of the land without much persevering 
toil and labour : such reasoning as this is built on a 
weak foundation, and is easily overthrown. 

It was from pure ambition that the barbarians of the 
north quitted their own houses, and it was by pure 
courage that they made themselves masters of other 

31 Lib. x. tit, 2, ley S a .— Translator. 



1.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



23 



people's. All the forces which vainly attempted to 
dispute their passage made about as much show of 
resistance as a slight cloud of dust offers to a strong 
and impetuous wind. It was by good government that 
they succeeded in retaining possession of the conquered 
lands and dominions they had usurped, and exalted 
their power to the skies, laying its foundations on the 
real obedience and love of the natives, and not turning 
to account the animosities and party interests which, 
however much they may uphold empires for a time, 
eventually overturn them, resembling in this respect 
the foundation-stone of an old building which keeps 
gradually mouldering away : its ravages escape de - 
tection, till after it has crumbled to pieces, and caused 
the fabric it was supporting to tumble down, when it is 
too late for either art or industry to prevent its fall. 

Xow, as the Goths were not influenced in their 
actions by catholic intolerance, but by the desire of 
firmly maintaining their conquests, we can hardly sup- 
pose that when they made the division of Spain, they 
would have allowed the Hebrews to be forgotten had 
there been a large number of the latter living in their 
cities. 

5 Tis certain that the Gothic kingdoms were replete 
with fraternal hatreds, insults, and calamities of every 
description. Like rude barbarians, they were com- 
pletely under the influence of their passions, especially 
of ambition, and rushed with furious rapidity into the 
commission of every crime that their unbridled wills 
suggested to them. Subjects ousted kings, and deprived 



34 



HISTORY OF 



them by violence of their thrones and lives, sometimes 
by the agency of poison, sometimes by the sword ; and 
not only were such things done by subjects, but brothers 
received like treatment from brothers, and children 
from parents. So fearful is the effect produced by the 
ambitious thirst of power! much more is this the case 
when this desire is combined with hardness of heart, 
ferocity of disposition, and ignorance of right ! But in 
this age, in which crimes, and even those most repug- 
nant to nature, had risen to such a height, the Spaniards 
had but few grievances to complain of. Subjugated as 
they were and unable to shake off the yoke of oppres- 
sion from their shoulders, but at the same time living 
under a good government, they never took part with 
the factions that rose up for the purpose of wresting 
the sceptre from the hands of those who, in previous 
tumults, had received the regal dignity from the army 
and the people. These quarrels were confined to the 
Goths, and resembled those of two beasts, which, after 
helping one another in the struggle for a prize and 
succeeding in getting it, engage furiously together, 
each with the view of making it his own. 

From the time that Ataulphus and his powerful host 
invaded the Spanish peninsula with fire and sword, and 
reduced it to obedience, with scarcely any opposition 
(which, according to conjectures more or less probable, 
happened in the year 415), till the year 586, when 
Recaredo the First began to reign, and, abjuring Arian- 
ism, embraced the Catholic religion, 32 the Jews lived 

32 See Francisco Pisa's Historia de Toledo, lib. n. cap. 17. — Trans- 
lator. 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



25 



in peace and had a regular trade and intercourse 33 with 
both Goths and Spaniards. They were neither despised 
nor oppressed. 

Kecaredo, after repudiating the doctrines of Arius 
and bringing over a large number of the Arian party 
to Catholicism, was the individual who opened the door 
to the persecutions of the Hebrew people. In the 
council assembled at Toledo in the year 589, 34 it was 
decreed that the Jews should not hold public offices, 
or have Christian mistresses or Christian slaves : that 
all children of the latter, born in captivity, should be 
manumitted, and brought over to the Catholic religion 
by the waters of baptism. 

St. Gregory 35 bestows much praise upon king Eeca- 
redo for not allowing himself to be blinded by covet- 
ousness when the Jews offered him a large sum of 
money to abrogate these laws, which, it is said, were 
passed to hinder them from seducing their domestic 
slaves, whether male or female, from Christianity to 
conformity with the Mosaic law. 

I have no doubt that they were then attempting to 
make great numbers of proselytes to their religion — -a 
mischievous design which the fathers of the council 
were anxious to prevent : at the same time, I am fully 

33 The word comer 'do, in its primary sense, signifies trade or com- 
merce ; in its secondary, intercourse. I think the author intends to use 
it in both, and have therefore given both in the text. — Translator. 

34 See the Cronica General de Espana, por Ambrosio Morales, lib. 
xii. vol. vi. p. 18. — Translator. 

35 See the same work and volume, p. 31, 32, and Padilla's Hist. 
Eclesiast. vol. n. fol. 124.-- Translator. 



26 HISTORY OF [BK- 

persuaded that the measures which they took to check 
the advance which Judaism was making in Spain, were 
precisely the reverse of those which they should have 
taken. The Hebrews were now numerous, and, owing 
to their wealth, powerful ; and, driven by outrage and 
persecution, committed riots and disturbances in the 
kingdom. To close the door against such evils was 
the aim of Sisebuto, a man described to us as mag- 
nanimous, valiant in war, rigidly just in peace, always 
compassionate, and, above all, a great zealot in the 
Christian cause, on which account (his great piety not 
allowing him to have subjects that were not Catholics) 
he ordered all Jews who would not receive baptism 
to be banished from Spain. Many of them fled to 
France 36 in order to escape giving up their law; but 
those (about thirty thousand) who remained to preserve 
their estates and dwellings, finding themselves forced 
into it by tortures and other extremely rigorous punish- 
ments, and threatened with death into the bargain, 
were baptized; continuing, however, to be Jews in 
heart, though Christians in name, as appeared by sub- 
sequent events. St. Isidore, a man who had no par- 
tiality for the customs of the Israelites, excuses the 
king's zeal, which he calls a good, a rational, and a 
justly directed one, but finds fault with the means of 
which the king availed himself; for he says that the 
truth of the Christian faith should have made its way 
to the minds of the Jews, not by force, fear, or power, 
but by means of soft and persuasive words. 

36 Ambrosio Morales, vol. vi. p. 70. 71.— Translator, 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



We are assured by good authors that king Sisebuto 
was urged on to this obstinate and cruel persecution of 
the Hebrews by a letter he received from the emperor 
Heraclius, who had given himself up to the study of 
judicial astrology and the desire of prying into futurity 
by means of curious arts, and had become a great di- 
viner and very attentive to prognostics : by one of these 
he learnt that he was to be dethroned and murdered 
by circumcised people, and thought to prevent his 
dethronement and murder by bringing over the Jews 
that lived in his dominions to the Christian religion, 
by means fair or foul, and not only them, but all the 
Jews dispersed throughout the globe : in which enter- 
prise he strove to engage all kings who were in friend- 
ship or alliance with him. 

There is no reason to disbelieve that this was the 
cause of the persecution of the Jews in Spain by Sise- 
buto, and, after him, by Dagobert, king of France, in 
his lands and seigniories ; but before the times of the 
emperor Heraclius and his auguries and prognostics/ 7 
Recaredo had already begun to oppress and harass 
these people, whence I - conclude that this Gothic 
monarch was rather influenced by some reason of 
state, than led by the persuasions of others, to check 
the evils occasioned to Christianity by the excess of 
liberty enjoyed by the Hebrews who lived in his 
dominions. 

37 This is the opinion of the historian Mariana, who says with a 
sneer, that Sisebuto would have done weU to apply the prediction to 
the Moors and Saracens instead of the Jews. This writer in many 
passages of his history ridicules the astrologers and their science. 
See his Historia General de Esparia, lib. vi. cap. 1. — Translator. 



28 HISTORY OF [BK. 

A short time only elapsed ere Sisebuto discovered 
how little had been the success resulting from his 
measures. He saw that the calamities which had be- 
fallen his kingdoms owing to his constraining the Jews 
to turn Christians, were on the increase ; and, like a 
barbarian and ignoramus, instead of attributing them 
to his own error in the choice of means to arrest their 
progress, adopted other methods,— I will not say equally, 
but even more cruel than the former. He took care 
that the complaints of the Hebrews should come to his 
ears — as the complaints of all subjects, how grievous 
soever they be, do come to the knowledge of kings — 
in an extenuated form. And, in concurrence with the 
bishops and nobles in the Cortes and council of Toledo, 
a.d. 633, he resolved that all who had received baptism 
should be compelled to observe the ceremonies of the 
Christian religion : that they should not be allowed to 
educate their young children, but that the latter should 
be entrusted to the care of old 38 Christians : and, finally, 
they were from that moment forbidden, under pain of 
perpetual slavery, to have any dealings with persons 
who had not come over to* the faith. In addition to 
this, the fathers of the council threatened to excom- 
municate all who should disobey these orders ; for the 
Jews were, at this time, winning over to their side the 
minds, not only of the powerful, but of some bishops 

38 Good, according to Morales. The word old has no reference 
whatever to the actual age of the persons thus described. It is the 
boast of many a Spaniard that he is a Cristiano viejo, rancio y sin 
maneha, that is, an old Christian, a rank one and without stain* See 
the note to page 1. — Translator, 



I.J THE JEWS m SPAIN. 29 

and priests, both by means of the friendly intercourse 
which was maintained by their industrial and com- 
mercial pursuits, as well as by their riches — keys, with 
which, in the most calamitous times, they used to lock 
the doors through which misfortunes entered. Sisebuto 
was not satisfied with issuing such strict orders as 
these ; and so for the purpose of oppressing the Hebrew 
converts still more, by the twelfth, thirteenth, and four- 
teenth laws of the Fuero Juzgo, second title, [book twelfth,] 
he prohibited them from burying Christian slaves, or 
obliging any of those whom they then possessed to be 
circumcised or to judaize, and further compelled them 
to manumit these in conformity with the Roman law. 

It will surely appear strange to some, that, after so 
many persecutions, the Jews should not only persevere 
in an obstinate adherence to their creed, but commu- 
nicate it to others, with a view to its general adoption 
in Spain. But, from what has been said, it will be 
acknowledged that these men were reduced to a depth 
of extreme oppression, and to the lowest and most 
miserable condition, and also that they were under the 
necessity of procuring a mitigation or termination of it 
at once, or else of continuing in it, or something worse 
than it, for the remainder of their lives. They found 
their hopes nipped in the bud ; for the rigorous laws 
against the Hebrews were revived with additions to 
them, in the Cortes and council of Toledo, in the reign 
of king Chintila, 39 a.d. 63 8. 

39 Lucas Tudensis, in his Chronicon mundi, lib. 3, says Chintila was 
persecutor et malleus hcereticorum (the scourge and hammer of heretics). 



30 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



King Flavio Recesvinto, too^ was desirous of apply- 
ing a remedy to the evils continually and secretly 
brought on the countries over which his rule extended, 
by Jews who wore the cloak of Christians ; but in this 
undertaking he did not choose to strike out into a new 
path, and would only tread in the steps of his prede- 
cessors/ In the Council holden at Toledo, in the year 
655. he called on the prelates to make careful provision 
for closing the avenues to those malpractices of which 
the Jews were daily guilty, in spite of so many laws 
and penalties. They, in the mean time, knowing what 
objects of suspicion they were to the king, and taught 
by past experience not to expect any favour from their 
opponents, addressed letters to Recesvinto (which may 
be seen in the Fuero Juzgo)* 1 in which they acknow- 
ledged that they had hitherto obstinately adhered to 
Judaism, but were now become real Christians, and 
would no longer observe any of the ceremonies of their 
law, and thus give clear proof of the complete renun- 
ciation of their errors. 

This frank declaration [only] served to put a stop to 
the severities and cruelties practised upon the Jews, 
and so the whole fury which the Council had directed 

and the good Bishop evidently thinks that, as such, this monarch 
was entitled to some commendation . See Schott's Eispania illustrata, 
vol. iv. p. 51 : also 9th Canon of Toledan Council, a.d. 638, in 
Padiila's HistoHa Eclesidstica cle Espa?la, fol. 224, and Morales, vol. yi. 
page 116. — Translator . 

40 Morales, vol. vi. fols. 167, 168.— Translator. 

41 Lib. xii. tit. ii. leyes 2—11, 15—17. See also Padiila's Hist. 
Ecles. vol. ii. fols. 261 and 262.— Translator. 



I.] THE JEWS IM SPAIN. 31 

against them was limited to a renewal of the ancient 
laws, and an order to the judges to carry them out 
with the greatest rigor. But it was all in vain. They 
persevered in adhering to their law and communicating 
it to others, and the bishops and nobles continued to 
follow the mistaken and toilsome road they had chosen 
to effect the extirpation of Judaism in Spain. 

In the Councils and Cortes holden at Toledo in the 
years 656 and 6 81, they again revived the old laws and 
added new ones to them. King Ejica, in the Council 
which was also holden at Toledo in the year 693/" 
asked the prelates to devise a scheme for the seemly 
decoration of the temples, and for maintaining the small 
churches in good repair, and for having them well 
ornamented and properly served : for his great piety 
had been dreadfully shocked at a report which reached 
his ears of the great and frequent ridicule bestowed 
upon them by the Jews, who said, They have taken 
away from us good synagogues , and keep for themselves 
such temples as these ! He likewise requested that they 
might be forbidden to frequent or carry on negotiations 
at the catablo^ a word of Greek origin, according to 

42 For these councils, see Pandilla's Histcria eclesidstica de Espaha, 
chap. 43, 57, and 69, vol. ii., fols. 264, &c, 298, &c, 322, &c; and 
for the last of the three see also Morales' Cronica General de Espana, 
chap. 49, vol. vi. p. 341. — Translator. 

43 I apprehend that Morales is right in his conjecture. Kara(3d\\Eti>. 
according to Liddell and Scott, sometimes means "to bring, carry 
down, especially to the sea-coast, KaTafidWeiv tri-ia, Hdt. 7 3 25, 
where others take it to lay in stores or depots." If this definition of 
Ka-TafiaWziv "by the two learned lexicographers be correct, may not 
the noun ie«tTa£oA.rj (or catablo) signify the port, or place to which 



32 HISTORY OF [BK. 

Ambrosio Morales, which, by a species of circumlo- 
cution, comes to signify the port. It is said that this 
step was taken with the view to excite in the minds of 
the Christians an eager desire to apply themselves to 
commerce and traffic with the maritime cities of the 
Levant, where ships, laden with merchandize brought 
from foreign kingdoms, used to anchor : these ships 
were first purchased by the Hebrews, the only or at 
any rate the principal traders of those days in Spain ; 
for the majority of the Goths, and a considerable num- 
ber of the Spaniards, who were now united to them by 
the ties of consanguinity and friendship, were wholly 
occupied in involving the kingdom in civil wars, and in 
electing and dethroning kin^s. 

The medicines applied to the complaints bore a much 
stronger resemblance to poisons and deleterious drugs 
than to cures. The Jews were freemen in the eye of 
the law, though treated as harshly as slaves, and not 
onlv as slaves, but worse than the most destructive and 

at 

ferocious animals. The children of their slaves were 
taken from them as soon as born, while the Christians 
kept the children of their own slaves in the same 
servitude as their parents. The Jews were prohibited 
from offering themselves candidates for public offices : 
the wings of their free trade were clipped : they had 
a religion forced upon them, which did not accord with 
the principles instilled into them in their childhood : 

goods are brought, carried dovm i or in which stores are laid? — See 
Morales and Padilia, in places referred to in the last note, — Trans- 
lator. 



I.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN", 33 

they were forbidden to abstain from articles of food, of 
which, up to that time, their laws had not allowed them 
to partake, and to which they had long entertained 
a feeling of repugnance, as they were not accustomed 
to them. On completing their seventh year, the chil- 
dren lost, if not the love, at least the kindness and fond 
caresses of their mothers : for they were taken from 
them to be educated in the Christian faith, by persons 
not attached to them by the ties of blood or friend- 
ship. What else could they learn from such teachers 
but contempt for and hatred of those very persons 
to whom they owed their being? The complaints of 
the latter were not listened to. Listened to, do I say ? 
they were not even allowed to be made. In their 
way to obtain redress for the outrages inflicted upon 
them by all classes of people, mountains of difficulties 
were raised; while, in order to punish them for the 
slightest faults, crags and precipices, down which to 
hurl them with greater facility, presented themselves 
to the eyes of the judges. They lived without hopes 
of deriving any benefit from existing laws, and in con- 
stant dread of future ones still more severe ; for all laws 
were framed with the design to make their condition 
worse and still more and more miserable. The act of 
speaking to a person not reputed to be a true Christian 
entailed upon them the loss of liberty and perpetual 
bondage. Their wives, their children, and their estates 
were exposed to the cupidity and hatred of their per- 
secutors. Laws favourable to them were forgotten 
when they were put on their trial, and unfavourable 



34 HISTORY OF [BK. 

ones were interpreted in a sense still more unfavourable 
to them. Whithersoever they turned their eyes, they 
only met with enemies. Miscreants* unawed by fear or 
shame, robbed them at their pleasure ; for who was to 
succour them in their perils, when the magistrates 
denied justice to their suits ? In this manner did they 
live, incapacitated from attending to the honest care of 
their estates and their houses, their children and their 
wives. These were in continual fear for the lives and 
liberties of their husbands, who, as well as they, 
passed the best days of their life without seeing their 
children, in the greatest bitterness, and in expectation 
of still greater affliction in store for the days of their 
old age, without the warm affection and protection of 
their sons : in defiance of law, thev were dailv insulted 
and aggrieved, and, while they found none to redress 
their wrongs, were unable to revenge them with their 
own hands : they were persecuted by kings, bishops, 
and nobles, as well as plebeians : they experienced the 
same hardships as slaves, or even worse : they suffered 
the whole weight of adversity, while they looked not 
for the blessings of prosperity : they found no ears 
open to their complaints, no countenance given to their 
speculations, no consolation in their troubles, no repa- 
ration or compensation for their losses : lastly, they 
were, always, and in all places, and by all classes 
of people, oppressed, despised, hated, and even reviled. 

In order to shake off their necks the intolerable 
yoke under which they were groaning, the Jews made 
a plot to murder king Ejica, and all the nobles and 



I.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 35 

prelates opposed to themselves, and make themselves 
masters of the Spanish territories : an enterprise which 
they intended to execute with the help of their brethren 
that were settled in the African cities. In spite of the 
precautions they took to prevent the discovery of their 
secret before the time for action was ripe, the traps 
they were laying for the destruction of the king be- 
came known to him : and in the seventeenth council of 
Toledo, the last holden in that city, he acquainted the 
prelates and nobles of the realm, who were assem- 
bled in parliament, with this so serious and important 
a matter, and at the same time declared what he 
had discovered by clear proofs and the confession of 
some of the conspirators : it amounted to this— that the 
Spanish Jews had carried on a correspondence with 
their brethren of Africa, with the view to concert mea- 
sures for rising against the Christians and destroying 
them. 45 

The minds of the latter were not much terror- 
stricken by the account of such machinations : on the 
contrary, they resolved that all Jews implicated in so 
atrocious an act of treason should incur the penalty 
of perpetual bondage ; which was to affect them, their 
wives, and children, together with confiscation of pro- 
perty and dispersion throughout the kingdom, a barrier 
of intervening land separating one party of them from 
another, by which means they would be left in so low 
and miserable a condition as to be disabled from doing 
any hurt either to the king or to the Christians. 45 

* 5 Padilla's Hist. Eel, de Espana, vol. ii. fols. 328 & 330.— Translator. 

d2 



36 HISTOEY OF [BK. 

Great were the acts of violence and cruelty practised 
upon the Jews by those whose duty it was to discharge 
such rigorous orders. These men proceeded according 
to their own free will, and brought in whomsoever they 
would accomplices in this treasonable plot ; they con- 
fiscated property without listening to any pleas which 
the accused might put forward in their defence, and, 
in short, allowed all their steps to be guided, if not 
by hatred to the Hebrews, by the desire of possess- 
ing their goods. 

Some think that these persecutions of the Jews were 
mitigated in the reign of Witiza, a monarch pourtrayed 
to us by the historians of his day as a model of virtue, 
and by those nearest to ours as a monster of iniquity 
in all its forms. I neither intend to extol nor blacken 
this king's memory. Intemperate vituperations of it 
are to be met with in our historians : there is also 
a very good defence of his acts in a little work by 
a fine writer {The Glory of Spain, Don Gregorio 
Mayans y Siscar), which is highly prized by the learn- 
ed, and bears this title, Defence of King Witiza** 

Archbishop Eoderic, in his Latin history of Spanish 
affairs, says that this monarch " having violated the 
rights of the Churches, raised the Jews to their former 

46 Rodericus Sanctius (Hist. Hisp. pars ii. cap. xxxv.), Alfonsus 
a, Carthagena (Regum Hispan. Aiiacephalceosis, cap. xiii.), Lucius 
Marineus Siculus (De Rebus Hispanice, lib. vi.), Franciscus Tarapha 
(De Rebus Hispanice t anno 698,) and Joannes Yasaeus (Hispania 
Chronicon, p. 574), give this king a very bad character. I have not 
had an opportunity of consulting the work by Mayans y Siscar.— 
Translator. 



I.] THE JEWS IX SPAIN. 37 

condition, and honoured them with privileges of greater 
immunity than he granted to the Churches. 5 ' 47 Ambrosio 
Morales says the same thing, and so do Juan Mariana 
and other equally grave authors who have written 
histories of Spain. Not a word about the protection 
given to the Jews by king Witiza is to be found in 
the works of any Gothic writer. Isidore, Bishop of 
Badajoz, and therefore called El Pacense, 48 while laud- 
ing the virtues and notable acts of this monarch, says, 
that after the death of his father Ejica, he had no 
sooner begun to reign with unshackled power over the 
inhabitants of Spain, than he published a general am- 
nesty of the offences of which several nobles had been 
accused in the preceding reign, and after restoring 
them their property which had been unjustly con- 
fiscated, he not only gave them permission to return 
to the Peninsula, but also to reside at his court, and 
even in his palace, and to be about his person. 

The first writer who spread the report of king 
Witiza's giving orders for the return of the absent and 
persecuted Jews to Spain, was Don Lucas, Bishop of 
Tuy; he composed a Chronicle in the year 1235, in 
the execution of which he did not adopt the opinion of 
any Gothic author, but took hold, no doubt, of the 
popular fables or the false accounts of Arabic writers, 

47 Rodericus Toletanus, De rebus Hispanus, lib. iii. cap. xvi. See 
Morale?, Coronica General de Esparia, lib. xii. cap. Ixv. sect. 8 ; 
Mariana, Historia general de Esparla, lib. yi. cap. xix. — Translator, 

48 Mr. Ford, speaking of Badajoz, says, "The name was corrupted 
by the Moors from Pax Augusta." See Murray's Handbook of Spain, 
vol. i. p. 521, ed. 1845. — Translator, 



38 



HISTORY OF 



and employed them for his pole-star on his road, and 
thus caused Archbishop Roderic and Don Alonso the 
learned (on the credit of his authority) to palm off the 
same, fiction in their narratives of the events that had 
occurred in the Peninsula, up to the times in which 
they lived. 49 

It is an undoubted fact that the Spanish Jews, during 
the long reign of Witiza, were kept in the most in- 
tolerable captivity, and did not advance a single step 
in their design to put an end to the rigorous oppression 
and state of misery, to which they had been reduced by 
former monarchs. However, a short time only elapsed 
ere their hopes were raised in the quarter where they 
had been so long buried. King Roderic, by usurping 
the throne in violation of the rights of Witiza's children, 
without having been called to it by the people, and, in 
violation of reason, law, and justice, receiving the royal 
investiture solely from the Senate, caused the kingdom 
to be divided into two factions ; and then the Jews 
beheld the opportunity draw near for bursting open the 
gates through which they were to escape from the bitter 
captivity in which they were living. 

These party dissensions were so many sparks which 
served to inflame the minds of these men and encourage 
them with such hopes of liberty and vengeance, that 
they began to devise a plan for exterminating their 

49 Lucas of Tuy is better known by the name Lucas Tudensis : 
his Chronicle is published in the fourth volume of Schott's Eispania 
Illustrata. For AYitiza's character as given by the Bishop of Tuy, 
see lib. xii. of his chronicon mundi, 69th page of volume referred to. — 
Translator. 



I.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 39 

oppressors by fire and sword. As a river 3 when stopped 
for a time by flood-gates to prevent its inundating the 
country, returns and rushes against them with redoubled 
force, bursts them and spreads itself over the fields with 
increased violence, and commits greater havoc and de- 
struction ; so the oppressed Hebrews, after so often 
miscarrying in their attempts to break their chains, did 
at last find means to avenge themselves on their enemies, 
and did clearly prove to kings and individuals entrusted 
with the government of large states, that there are dis- 
eases which usually require mild remedies, and that, 
oftentimes, violent cures and cruel operations only give 
a sudden check to the progress of the malady, and even 
then for but a space of time of more or less brief du- 
ration, and serve not to prevent them from attacking 
the body again more dreadfully than before, and bring- 
ing upon it pains more acute, more distressing, more 
dangerous, and even death itself. 

When governors imagine that, to gain their point, 
everything, how contrary soever to order, law, and cus- 
tom, is fair, and carry their decrees at the point of the 
sword ; the people, overruled by necessity, yield to the 
force of arms, while they ever retain in their hearts 
the desire to shake off the yoke and avenge their cap- 
tivity. This fire, though latent, needs but a breath of 
air to fan it into a flame ; and so, in their outbreaks or 
rebellions, particularly when they have been oppressed 
without cause, the people follow the worst examples, 
besides availing themselves of the most wicked, the 



40 



History of 



[bk. 



most darings the most bloody, and the most ferocious 
means. 

I do not mean to say that the Jews who conspired 
against the lives of the kings and the state to which 
they were in subjection, should have been allowed to 
escape with impunity ; but there are times when, if 
lenity cannot be adopted, at least the extreme of se- 
verity should be avoided. It is not in fair weather that 
the dexterity of pilots is discovered, but when the vessel 
is tossed by the fury of the billows, at one moment lifted 
up to the clouds^ at another pitched down into the 
depths of the sea and in danger of being dashed to 
pieces against the rocks. It is a maxim of great poli- 
ticians that the monarch who is the object of universal 
dread, is compelled, for the preservation of his life and 
throne, to be in fear of all. 

Up to the present time the majority of historians, in 
treating of the loss of Spain, have attributed it to Count 
Julian's vengeance on king Roderic for an illicit amour 
with his daughter, when the Count incited the Arabs 
to the conquest of the Peninsula, and exerted in their 
behalf all the interest he had through his relatives, 
his kindred, his friends, and his partisans. Others 
attribute it to the Divine wrath, which was moved by 
Roderic having broken the doors of an enchanted cave 
near Toledo, on one of the banks of the deep-flowing 
Tagus. But both these events are fictitious, resting, as 
they do, on no other foundation than the small talk and 
fabulous accounts of the vulgar, and the popular ballads 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



41 



and romances invented by Moors and Christians to 
while away their leisure hours. 50 

It is positively certain that the sons of Witiza and 
other nobles, disgusted at Roderic's usurpation of the 
Gothic throne, at his cruel government, and the wicked- 
ness of his life, went to Africa for the purpose of 
earnestly soliciting Muza to send Arab troops into 
Spain. This daring and renowned warrior listened to 
their statements, but before he engaged his word and 
his people in this enterprise, he began to make secret 
enquiries through the medium of the Jews settled in 
Africa, who carried on a constant correspondence with 
their Spanish brethren. The latter answered that Spain 
was destitute of strength and vigour, the kingdom was 
divided into factions, the castles were dismantled, many 
nobles were disgusted with the tyrannical yoke of their 
monarch who was given up to vice, the plebeians were 
oppressed with misery, the treasury was exhausted by 
reason of the supplies it had been compelled to furnish 
for so many long civil wars, the sea was without vessels, 
the land without troops, and, finally, that there was 
a want of the two principal nerves which keep the 
bodies of states together, that is to say, agriculture 
and commerce. The Jews likewise offered to render 
all the assistance in their power towards the capture 
of Spain, provided that, after its conquest, permission 
were granted to them, their wives, and children, to live 

50 I find the same opinion expressed in a note to the eighth chapter 
of Conde's Historia de la dominacion de los Arabes en Espana. — Trans- 
lator. 



42 HISTORY OF [BK. 

according to the law of Moses, and the Arabs not 
allowed to molest or afflict them with punishments 
or other severities. 

This answer fired the mind of Muza and encouraged 
him to try and obtain so easy a prize : and so, having 
the Caliph's permission, he ordered the chieftain Taric 
to land with some picked cavalry on the opposite coasts 
of Andalusia. He passed the straits of Hercules with 
five hundred Arab cavalry in four large barques, and 
made a successful descent upon the Spanish shores. 
The Moslems made incursions and carried off some 
cattle and people, while no one went out to encounter 
them. With this prize and good fortune Taric returned 
to Tangier, where he was well received. Muza then 
raised a powerful army and placed it under the com- 
mand of the same chieftain. These troops passed the 
strait, and jumped on shore at the place where Alge- 
ciras is now situated. The Spaniards made an in- 
effectual attempt to hem them in and defend the pass 
against them, and after some slight skirmishes, took to 
flight. Taric commanded his ships to be burnt, in order 
to deprive his army of any certain means of escape from 
death, in the event of its experiencing a reverse of for- 
tune i an action which was imitated nine centuries later 
at the conquest of Xew Spain by Hernan Cortes, and 
which has been so highly eulogized by the historians of 
that enterprise. 

The Spanish chieftain who made face against the 
Arabs was named Tadmir : he it was who wrote to 
inform the king of the arrival of the people from 



I.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 43 

Africa, and made mention of his own exertions to 
maintain the pass against them, when he was unex- 
pectedly attacked and obliged to yield to superior num- 
bers: he added that the enemy was encamped in the 
country and beginning to make incursions ; that the 
king must send to his relief all the men he could 
muster; and, in conclusion, that such was the neces- 
sity and strait he was in, that, unless the king himself 
took the field with all the forces of his realm, its loss 
was inevitable. 

Eoderic was alarmed at the news, and assembling his 
council, and the principal gentlemen that resided at his 
court, and his personal attendants, harangued them 
thus : " A horde of African savages have invaded our 
territories, laid waste the country, carried off cattle, 
and taken many into captivity : all who offered resist- 
ance to them have been scattered with the same rapidity 
that an eagle scares away a flight of pigeons. Make 
ready your arms and horses ; hands on your swords ; 
off to the Arab camp ; down with their squadrons ; 
make a terrible and frightful slaughter of them. And 
if fortune look upon our enemies with smiling and 
cheerful countenance, and snatch away from us the 
laurels of victory, at least we shall be slaying them 
while we die ourselves. Ye are the descendants of 
those Goths who were the terror of Rome : ye are 
the descendants of those Goths who were the dread 
and the admiration of the world : in a word, ye are 
the flower and glory of Spain. On, on ! let not your 
delay allow their Ged time to come and help them : 



44 



HISTORY OF 



our God hath put weapons into our hands and courage 
into our hearts. Freemen are we, and freemen will we 
be, though the Arabs threaten us with chains ; for our 
courage will wrest these from their hands for us soon 
to fasten them on their own untamed necks. But if 
fortune overset our designs, then let the world behold 
our corpses rather than see us enslaved to the Arabs ; 
and ere we are killed or vanquished, let us give them 
additional proofs of the valour we inherit, the courage 
we possess, and the powerful resistance we can make." 

Roderic raised an army of ninety thousand men and 
arrived with them at the plains of Xerez. All the 
nobility of his kingdom had received a summons to take 
part in this expedition. Some went armed with coats 
of mail and quilted underwaistcoats ; some only with 
lances, shields, and swords ; some with bows, arrows, 
and slings ; some with axes, clubs, and mowing scythes. 
The Arab chieftains collected their cavalry, which was, 
at the time, disbanded and employed in making incur- 
sions. When his squadrons were drawn up, Taric made 
them a speech to the following effect : " Moslems, see 
ye that powerful army, under the feet of which the 
earth trembles and quakes, and hear ye how it makes 
the air resound with the clashing of arms, the noise of 
drums and trumpets, and with what shouts it animates 
itself for the combat ? Do ye observe how far superior 
in numbers it is to our own ? Well then, turn your 
eyes in the other direction, and what do ye behold? 
a sea which will cut off your retreat, if fortune should 
deal hardly with us, and bring upon us an unhappy 



I.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 45 

reverse. To this quarter, then, let us not look for 
refuge or shelter, but death ; and were it death alone, 
that is a thing which ye are accustomed to look at with 
firmness of foot and serenity of countenance : but in- 
famy as well as death await us. Turn your eyes the 
other way. If ye fall by the hands of that army, ye 
will die an honourable and glorious death. If ye dis- 
perse it, those lands and all the riches ye find upon 
them will be your own. God and our intrepidity can 
alone save us. Remember your past victories, by which 
ye did honour to our country and your own name. Do 
not by disgraceful and inconsiderate fear forfeit that 
which hath cost you so much fatigue, nor give our 
enemies occasion to doubt the fact of our being those 
Moslems so famed in the world for their courage and 
firmness in battle — those Moslems to whom so many 
a valiant nation hath bent the neck in order to receive 
chains imposed by our hands." 

The morning had no sooner appeared than the two 
armies engaged with the fury of enemies, and during 
the whole of that day the victory remained doubtful 
The shades of night parted the combatants, and put 
a stop to the bloody carnage. When the rays of the 
sun shot forth, they engaged again with like success : 
fortune was neither favourable nor unfavourable to 
either party. On the third day of the fearful en- 
counter, Taric seeing that tife spirits of the Moslem 
troops began to decline, stood up in his stirrups, and, 
encouraging his horse, raised his voice and said : " Brave 
Moslems, ever victorious, never vanquished ; what blind 



46 HISTORY OF [BK. 

madness inspires you to give up the field and the vic- 
tory to this Gothic enemy ? Where is your intrepidity? 
Where are your past victories 1 Where is your con- 
stancy ? Follow me, then. Our honour is in the power 
of that army. Let us wrest it out of their hands, and 
let all who compose it, fall by ours. It is not meet 
that any one should ever have cause to tell the world 
that vile fear had more influence on vour hearts than 
the memory of the heroic exploits achieved by your 
ancestors, and the deeds which have made us so famous 
and so terrible, so respected and so powerful." And, 
giving reins to his spirited horse, he dashed into the 
midst of the Gothic army, trampling down and wound- 
ing all who vainly attempted to arrest his progress. 

The Moslems attacked the enemy, who considered 
the victory as all but won, with like spirit. Both sides 
fought with unexampled fury, foot to foot : they also 
wounded and slew each other with pikes and swords. 
The cavalry, as the ground was level, hurled their 
lances at random, rushing into the midst of the enemies' 
ranks and retreating from them at half speed ; and 
though both they and their horses were covered with 
wounds, this did not prevent them from fighting like 
valiant warriors. When the struggle was most obsti- 
nate, the infantry showed redoubled courage ; though 
wounded over and over again, they did not care to 
bind up their wounds.-^in fact they could not stop to 
do so, as the valor of the enemy gave them no other 
alternative than to fight or die. At this time Taric 
came up with the war-chariot in which Eoderic was 



I.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 47 

riding, boldly attacked him and pierced the king's 
breast through with a dart of his lance. The unfor- 
tunate king fell down dead, and Taric cut off his head 
and sent it to Muza, to give him a proof of the suc- 
cess which had attended his arms. On the death of the 
king and many of the great men of the Gothic nobility, 
the survivors began to slacken the fight and retreat. 
The Moslems followed up their advantage on horse- 
back; for when they had once obtained the victory, 
their wounds gave them no more pain, nor did hunger 
and thirst fatigue them, nor did they appear to have 
undergone any hardships or troubles. 

The valor and spirit of the Gothic troops became 
known by the fact that nearly all of them covered with 
their dead bodies the posts they had defended while 
living : and the dying exhibited their wonted look of 
ferocity. The Arabs did not obtain this victory with- 
out loss ; for the most courageous of them either fell 
or were very severely wounded in the battle. All 
over the field lamentation was variously mixed with joy, 
pleasure with pain. The air resounded with the music 
of the drums and trumpets which proclaimed the suc- 
cess of Taric's arms, and with these were mingled the 
cries of the wounded and dying. They who went to 
strip the corpses and seize the stores, ammunition, and 
the rest of the bootv, found by the side of an enemv's 
corpse that of a relation, brother, or parent — in short, 
that of the person who was most loved or most hated by 
him. This frightful encounter took place in the year 711. 

Such of the Gothic nobiiitv as had found means to 



48 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



escape with their lives, withdrew to the principal cities 
and commenced putting them into such a posture of 
defence as the furious activity of the enemy in pouring 
its warlike hosts into all parts of Spain would allow. 
The Arab army was but small in comparison with the 
arduousness of the enterprise ; but after so important 
a victory, nothing could check the rapidity with which 
it followed up its conquests. The news of the disas- 
trous rout of the Gothic army on the banks of the 
Guadalete travelled before their enemies, carrying with 
it terror to the natives and pourtraying the fierceness 
and power of the Arabs in the most vivid colours 
which consternation at so serious and grievous a calamitv 
could invent ; for misfortunes are usually more terrible 
in imagination than in reality. 51 

The Spanish Jews now saw that the time to break 
their chains was drawing nigh, and began to recover 
their breath, just as persons do who travel with a heavy 
weight on their shoulders, and who, when they have 
laid down their burden, think no more of their past 
labours nor of their present rest from them, and only 
derive satisfaction from the pleasure that arises from 
their hearts respiring with perfect freedom. 

Into each of the large cities that Taric won, whether 
by fire and sword or by capitulations that were honour- 
able and advantageous to the vanquished, he placed a 

51 For this and the eight preceding paragraphs, see Conde's *His- 
toria de la domination de los Arabes en Espana, cap. 8, 9, and 10. 
It seems singular that, in them, Conde should not make mention of 
the Jews. — Translator. 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN, 



49 



garrison of Arabs, in whose charge he left them, while 
he relied for their main security on the multitude of 
Jews, into whose hands he had placed arms, in order 
to obtain assistance from them in this expedition for 
the reduction of the Spanish peninsula, and at the 
same time to help them to escape from their cap- 
tivity and destroy those who had, for so many years, 
oppressed the descendants of the ancient Jewish 
nation. 

With these and with a small part of his army he 
defended the cities of Seville, Cordova, Toledo, and 
others : S2 Granada was entrusted to the Jews alone, and 
for this reason it came to be known, at the commence- 
ment of the Arab dominion in Spain, by the name of 
Jews' Town® 

I think the smallness of the number of Christians 
who sided with the Moslems when Spain was lost, is 

52 Arch.bish.op Roderic, speaking in his history of Taric, says, 
"Ipse autem captam Hispalim de Judseis et Arabibus populavit." 
And in another place, " Judseos autem qui inibi morabantur cum suis 
Arabibus ad populationem et custodiam Cordubae dimiserunt." And 
further on, " Taric autem ex Arabibus quos secum duxerat et Judseis 
quos Toleti invenerat, munivit Toletum." And elsewhere, "Exer> 
citus autem qui Malacam iverat, ccepit earn, et Christiani qui inibi 
habitabant, ad montium ardua confugerunt. Alius exer citus Grana- 
tam diutius iinpugnatam -victoria simili occupavit, et Judaeis ibidem 
morantibus et Arabibus stabilivit." The first, third, and fourth 
quotations are from lib. iii. cap. 23, the second is from cap. 22 of the 
same book. — Translator. 

53 In the history ascribed to Rasis the Moor, we find these words, 
"The other is the castle of Granada, called Jews' Town: 'tis the 
most ancient town in the district of Elibera, and was peopled by the 
Jews." [For accounts of the invasion of the Peninsula by the Arabs, 
I would refer the classical reader to the works of Kodericus Sanctius, 

E 



50 HISTORY OF [BK. 

clearly shown by the fact that there were not enough 
of them to fortify the populous cities, unless it be said 
that the Arabs, seeing that the friendship of the Goths 
was based on party spirit and ambition (very w r eak 
foundations, which are wont to give way unexpectedly 
with the buildings that rest upon them), were unwilling 
to commit the keeping of their conquests to the hands 
of such good-for-nothing rascals as scrupled not at sur- 
rendering their own power in Spain, and sacrificing the 
liberty of their countrymen, merely to gratify their 
desire of revenge. Nevertheless, it is most rational to 
suppose that the Christians who incited and encouraged 
the Arabs to this contest were but few in number, and 
that these few pointed out the way to master the forces 
of those w T ho attempted to dispute the passage of the 
Arab army. 

The Jews; on the other hand, were numerous, and 
all of them well affected to the conquerors for two 
reasons : first, because the latter had accepted the in- 
vitation sent them to accomplish the capture and re- 
duction of the Spanish peninsula ; and secondly^ because 
it was owing to the assistance of the Arabs that they 
had freed themselves from the oppression in which they 
had lived so unhappily and so miserably for so long a 
period. 

These were the fruits which the Goths reaped of the 

Hodericus Toletaims, Lucius Marhieus Siculus, Alphonsus a Cartha- 
gena, Joannes Yasseus, and others : they will be found in a volume 
published at Frankfort in 1579, entituled Rerum Hispanicarum Scrip- 
tores. — Translator. 



I.] THE JEWS IX SPAi x> 51 

horribly cruel persecutions they had . xood against the 
Jews, without reflecting that injuries must call down 
^ vengeance of the injured parties, and that men are 
c *3&re easily led by reason and conviction than force; 
for no one finds any difficulty in travelling on a road 
strewed with flowers, while all men shrink form clamber- 
ing up rugged mountains covered with thorns and 
caltrops, and surrounded with crags and precipice?, 
It is certain that things may happen which it is diffi- 
cult to believe. It is to this class, therefore, that we 
must refer the extremely bold determination of the op- 
pressed Hebrews to shake off their shoulders the yoke 
which galled them, and recover their liberty for ever. 
But in serious undertakings men ought to calculates 
ere they engage in them, the amount of evil or danger 
which is likelv to ensue from them. And though 
human foresight cannot always point out the effect of 
causes, it cannot be doubted that the manner in which 
they are directed has much to do with their turning 
out well or ill. 

By their rash and fierce persecution of the Hebrews, 
the Goths acted like a horse that is frightened in a 
storm by the flashes of lightning discharged from the 
clouds, and wildly scampers away for safety, without 
seeing whither he is going until he is compelled by 
his very speed to dash into a deep-flowing river, 54 which 

54 I have seen the beds of rivers in Spain completely dried up in 
summer, so that the epithet " deep-no vring,'' used in the text, is by 
no means superfluous. The diligence from Malaga to Granada, 
ovvLng to the narrowness of the streets in the former town, cannot get 
out of it except by the usually dry bed of the river. — Translator* 

e2 



52 HISTORY OF [BK. 

happens at the; utuae to be swollen by continual rains, 
and has become much more rapid than usual, and is 
about to lose its waters with its name in the sea. Not 
considering the results of things is the same as attempting 
to fly from an uncertain danger, not to a greater one. 
but to one beyond the reach of human skill or remedies, 
in which case we must leave to time the cure of the 
damage it may occasion, 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



53 



SUMMARY OF BOOK THE SECOND. 

Rabbinical Academy of Cordova founded. — First men who adorn 
it.— Decree of Ferdinand the First in the Cortes and Council of 
Coyanza (now called Valencia 1 de Don Juan). — Notice of some 
learned Rabbins. — Conquest of Seville by St. Ferdinand. — Jewry 
in this city. — Laws of Don Alfonso 2 the learned against the Jews, 
— Protection granted them by king Pedro. — They found a new 
synagogue at Toledo. — Complaints of Rabi Don Santo. — Ordi- 
nances of King Henry the Second. — Trap laid by the Jews for Don 
Juzaf Pichon. — Preachings of the Archdeacon of Ecija. — Popular 
insurrection against the Hebrews. — Sacking and burning of the 
Jewries at Seville, Valencia, and other cities. — Conversion of nu- 
merous Jews to Christianity. — Famous dispute at Tortosa between 
many of the most learned Spanish Jews and Jeronhno de Santa 
Fe, in presence of the Antipope, Pedro de Luna (Benedict the 
thirteenth). — Nearly all who went to hear the dispute were bap- 
tized. — Bull of Pedro de Luna against the unconverted Jews. — 
Assessment made upon the Jews in the year 1474. 



BOOK THE SECOND. 

How far do they wander from the truth who think 
that force is the only means of bringing to the true 
faith all those who are either ignorant of it, or, to their 

1 As there are several towns in Spain called Valencia, it may, per- 
haps, be as well to state that the one mentioned in the text is in the 
province of Leon. — Translator. 

2 Sometimes called Alonso,— Translator, 



54 HISTORY OF [BK. 

own injury, disregard it ! Of this they may find ex- 
amples as they go through the chequered narrative of 
this history ; first, from the bitter fruits which the 
Gothic monarchs reaped of the cruel persecutions they 
inflicted upon the Jews, in order to impress the truth 
of the Christian religion upon the minds of the latter ; 
and secondly, from the number of Hebrews who for- 
sook the law of Moses when they met with no per- 
secutions from the kings of Spain, when they enjoyed 
the blessings of free commerce, when they lived in the 
quiet of domestic life, and when they could, with per- 
fect tranquillity of mind, leisurely apply themselves to 
the study of literature. 

The Arab conquerors of Spain, indebted as they 
were to the highly favourable reception they met with 
at the hands of the Jews, while they were engaged in 
the conquest of these lands, as soon as they had re- 
duced them to obedience and had begun to reap the 
fruits of peace, kept the small remnant of the Goths, 
out of pure spite, shut up in a corner of the Peninsula, 
while they allowed the Hebrews full liberty to live 
according to the Mosaic law : and thus the latter laid 
the foundations of numerous synagogues in the larger 
and more considerable towns. 

The barbarous persecutions raised against the J ews 
in the East by the Caliph Cader, of the dynasty of the 
Fatimites, forced many of them to seek in Spain the 
termination of their misfortunes. And as the Hebrews 
who lived in the East were men of much learning, 
it resulted that the greater part of the new comers to 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



55 



these lands began to adorn them with their writings 
and to found academies, in order to diffuse among the 
people their own remarkable knowledge in every branch 
of art and science. The first, and undoubtedly the 
most celebrated of these academies was established in 
the year of the world, 4708/ and of the Christian era 
948, at Cordova : its founders and first masters were 
Rabbi Moseh and his son Rabbi Hanoc, the most 
eminent of the sages who came from Pombedita and 
Mehasia in Persia. Induced thereto by the fame of 
these men's learning, the Spanish Jews commenced 
sending their sons to be instructed at the academy 
there : the consequence of which was that, in course of 
time, there was a large number of Hebrews in the 
Peninsula, learned in every branch of science. 

Rabbi Izchaq Bar Baruq, a Cordovese, who suc- 
ceeded Moseh in the presidency of the academy of his 
country, wrote a work entituled Gaveta de Mercaderes, 
(Mercers' drawer). The Barcelonese Jehudah Ben 
Levi Barzili, an eminent lawyer, composed an Orde- 
namiento de los contratos (law of contracts) and other 
books. Selomoh Ben Gabirol, a native of Malaga, and 
resident of Zaragoza, wrote several poetical works, and 
some on moral philosophy. In those times the follow- 
ing persons were also in high repute : Abraham Ben 

a According to the most generally received system of chronology, 
the Creation of the world took place 4004 years before the Christian 
era : the Spanish Jews, whom the author has followed, place the 
date of that event 244 years later. Cronicas del Key Don Pedro, &c. 
por Lopez de Ayala, passim. — 'Translator. 



56 HISTORY OF [BK. 

Mija Hanasi, a great astronomer, Rabbi Izchaq, a noted 
physician and author of a curious book on fevers, and 
Moseh Aben Hezra Ben Izchaq, a celebrated poet and 
musician. And while the Arabs left all the numerous 
Jews who lived in their dominions at full liberty to 
observe the law of Moses, the kings of Castile, in those 
days, saw the necessity of allowing this people to dwell 
undisturbed in their lands and seigniories; though it 
was a source of constant annoyance to them, as they 
had not yet become tutored by experience of the fruits 
which the Gothic monarchs reaped of their cruel per- 
secutions. Hence it was that, in the Cortes and Council 
of Coyanza (now called Valencia de don Juan), con- 
voked by the order of Ferdinand the First, king of 
Castile and Leon, an ordinance was passed by the 
Bishops and nobles in the year 1050, that no Chris- 
tian should live in the same house or eat in company 
with Jews ; and it threatened all who should disobey 
this injunction with the penalty of performing open 
penance for the space of seven days/ and in case of 
a repetition of the offence they were to be punished 
with excommunication for the period of a year, if 
nobles, and with a hundred lashes, if plebeians. Whence 
it appears that the hatred of kings, bishops, and nobles 
was not yet extinct, and that the permission given to 
the Jews to live according to their ancient law, sprang 

4 See Coleccion de Cortes de los reinos de Leon y de Castilla por 
la Academia Espahola, 6th canon of the Council of Coyanza : the 
canons are in Spanish and Latin ; the former version says nine, the 
latter seven days. — Translator, 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPA1X. 



57 



from the well-grounded suspicion and fear of their 
migrating with their possessions 'and riches to the 
neighbouring lands of the infidels, and thereby di- 
minishing the population and revenues in the territories 
of the Christians, to the great injury of all. 

But there were not wanting in those times illus- 
trious Jews, who received baptism from conviction. 
One of these was Eabbi Moseh, 5 born in the city of 
Huesca, in the year 1062, who, when 44 years old, 
was baptized in the church of his native place, and 
received the names of Pedro Alfonso : he was named 
Pedro, because the ceremony was performed on the 
day that the Church celebrates the martyrdom of the 
Apostle St. Peter ; and Alfonso, because Don Alfonso, 
the sixth of Leon and the first of Castile, was his god- 
father. 

Several Jews of the Cordovese academy con- 
tinued to enlighten Spain with their works on every 
description of science ; as for example, Abraham Aben 
Hezra, a philosopher, astronomer, physician, poet, 
grammarian, cabalist, the most learned of his persua- 
sion in the interpretation of the sacred books, and, 
finally, the inventor of the method of dividing the 
celestial globe into two equal parts, by means of the 
equator : Jehudah Levi Ben Saul, a fine poet of Cor- 
dova, and many others, whose names and works are 
given in the first volume of the Biblioteca Espanola? 

5 See Garibay's Compendio Historial, vol. ii. p. 6-5, column 2nd. 
Barcelona edition of 1628. — Translator, 

6 This is an exceedingly interesting book, and, I should think, 
particularly useful to the Hebrew scholar.— Translator. 



58 HISTORY OF [BK. 

(Spanish library), got up by Don Jose Rodriguez de 
Castro, to which volume we refer those readers who 
are anxious to obtain further literary notices of the 
Spanish Rabbins of those days. 

Out of respect for the learning of the Spanish He- 
brews, Alfonso the Eighth, sirnamed the Good, granted 
them, in the charter of Cuenca, the rights (such as they 
were in those days) of citizenship, and placed them on 
perfect equality with the Christians. From the pro- 
tection given to the Jews by this monarch arose the 
indecent and lying story respecting his amours with 
one Rachel, a beautiful Hebrew woman, which amours 
were the scandal of Spain. 7 But although the learned 
king, Alfonso the Tenth, has, in his general chronicle 
of Spain, printed these with other popular fictions that 
disfigure a work of so elevated a style and of such great 
merit, they are, for all that, fabrications forged by the 
common people. 

St. Ferdinand followed the example of his predeces- 
sor 8 in the throne of Castile, and did in no wise oppress 
the Hebrews ; and when he had made himself master 
of the principal cities of Andalusia, he allowed the 
Rabbins who held their academy at Cordova to trans- 
fer it to Toledo, because this city is in the heart of 

7 See Cronica del Rey Don Alfonso VIII. por Cerda y Rico, cap. 
sxiii. p. 67-69 ; also work with same title, by Garcia de Avellaneda, 
cap. xyi. ; also Anales de Sevilla por Diego Ortiz de Zuniga, p. 37, 
2nd column. — Translator, 

8 Not immediate predecessor : many sovereigns intervened between 
Alonso or Alfonso the Eighth and St, Ferdinand. — Translator, 



10 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



59 



Spain, and because the knowledge of those learned men 
who were the ornaments of those schools could, from 
this latter place, be diffused all over his realms with 
greater facility. 

When this pious king reduced the city of Seville to 
subjection, the Jews, who had synagogues in it, went 
out to receive him, and, as a proof of submission and 
respect, put into his hands a silver key, with spaces in 
it alternately plain and gilt, with a Hebrew inscription 
upon it, of which the following are the words : 

THE KING OF KINGS SHALL OPEN : THE KING OF ALL 
THE EARTH SHALL ENTER. 9 

St. Ferdinand left the Jews in possession of the great 
Jewry which they had in the city of Seville, on con- 

9 A drawing of this key may be seen in the Anales de Sevilla by 
Don Diego Ortiz de Zuniga, Madrid, 1677. The author omits to 
state that the words 

GOD SHALL OPEN — KING SHALL ENTER 

are carved on the wards of the key. Zuniga interprets the two pas- 
sages thus : " By the miraculous way which God should open for 
him, and by that way only, could the holy king enter, who was 
worthy to reign over the whole earth, and that way the King of kings 
had opened or would open for him.'* He also informs us that another 
key, said to have been presented at the same time to St. Ferdinand 
by the Moors, and inscribed with Arabic characters of similar import 
to those engraved on the key delivered to that monarch by the Jews, 
was, when he wrote (viz. about 1677), in the possession of Don An- 
tonio Lope de Mesa, an inhabitant of Seville. The former of these 
keys was then (and I believe now both of them are) in the safe keep- 
ing of the dean and chapter of Seville. As this author has favoured 
us with drawings of both the keys, I have had a facsimile of them 
prepared for the readers of this work. The key represented on the 
left side of the plate is the one given by the Jews. See Zuniga' s 
Anales de Sevilla, p. 17, l$.— Tra?islator. 



60 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



dition that they paid him the same tributes as they 
used to render to the Moorish kings. The Archbishop, 
together with the dean and chapter of Seville, were 
appointed collectors of the tribute, the sum of which 
was to be applied to the maintenance of the ornaments 
and the divine service of the holy church : but it is an 
undoubted fact that they bore this burden with a heavy 
heart, inasmuch as, by deferring the times of its pay- 
ment, they gave occasion to the turbulent clergy to 
make a complaint of them to king Alfonso the Eleventh, 
in the year 1327. The Jews, in exculpation of them- 
selves, said that the chapter, influenced by excessive 
cupidity, was setting up a claim to more money than 
what they were bound to pay in the name of tribute. 
At last the king gave a commission to Fernando Mar- 
tinez de Valladolid, his chief notary in the realms of 
Castile, to investigate this matter, and as this man gave 
judgment the same year in favour of the claims of the 
Archbishop, dean, and chapter of the holy church of 
Seville, the Jews had no other means of escaping the 
penalties with which they were threatened, than by 
satisfying the claim of three maravedis a year per head, 
a tax due from the moment of their birth till the com- 
pletion of their sixteenth year (a maravedi was, at that 
time, equivalent to tenpence), making a total of thirty 
pence annually, for which they were made liable from 
the moment that St. Ferdinand rescued the city of 
Seville from the Moors. 10 



10 Zuniga, Anales de Sevilla, p. 184, &c. — Translator. 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



61 



His son, Alfonso the Tenth, to whom fame justly 
awards the name of Learned, in the composition of his 
Tables , availed himself of the knowledge of the most 
learned among the Jews and Arabs. In the preface 
of a very ancient manuscript copy of the Alfonsine 
Tables, the following curious words occur : " The king 
ordered meetings of the undermentioned individuals to 
be holden, to wit, Aben Raj el and Alquibicio, his Tole- 
dan masters, Aben Musio and Mahomet of Seville, and 
Josef Aben All and Jacobo Abvena of Cordova, and 
more than fifty others whom he brought from Gascony 
and Paris, at high salaries, and directed them to trans- 
late the Quadripartite of Ptolemy and compare it with 
the books of Mentesam and Algazel. Samuel and Je- 
hudd (the converted alfaqui 11 of Toledo) were charged 
to see that the meetings took place in the alcazar of 
Galiana, and to hold disputations on the motion of the 
firmament and stars. When the king was not present, 
Aben Eajel and Alquibicio acted as presidents. There 
were frequent disputations among them from the year 
1258 to 1262, and at last they made some famous 
Tables, as every one knows ; and after this work was 
completed by them, and they had received many re- 
wards from the king, he sent them back well-pleased 
to their own countries, and gave them privileges, and 
granted to them and their descendants exemption from 
the payment of taxes, duties, and contributions; re- 
specting which there are letters extant at Toledo, bear- 



An alfaqui was a Mussulman doctor.— -Translator. 



62 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



ins: the date of the 12th of May, in the era 1300. 12 
King Alfonso the Tenths out of gratitude, no doubt, 

18 The Marquis of Mondejar, in his Noticias Historicas del rey Don 
Alonso el Sabio, makes mention of this manuscript, and cites from it 
the above extract. To make the Spanish era agree with the Chris- 
tian, thirty-eight years must always be subtracted from the former, 
so that the em 1300 corresponds to a.d. 1262. An accoimt of the 
Alfomine Tables is given in the Penny Cyclopedia (vol, i. p, 37). 
It is obvious that the Alquibicio in our author's text and the Al Cab it 
of the Cyclopaedists are the same person. As some important matters 
given in the Cyclopaedia are not mentioned in the manuscript just cited, 
I shall transcribe the whole article of the former on this interesting 
subject: " Alonsine or Alphonsine Tables, an astronomical work, 
which appeared in the year 1252, under the patronage of Alonso X., 
in the first year of his reign. They contain the places of the fixed, 
stars, and all the methods then in use for the computation of the 
places of the planets : but they are not made from original observa- 
tions, nor is there any material difference between the astronomy 
contained in them and that of Ptolemy, except in two points. The 
length of the year is supposed to be 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, 
and 16 seconds ; which is a more correct value than had been given 
before, being only 26 seconds over the best modern determinations. 
The mean precession of the equinoxes is stated at half its real amount, 
being such as would carry the equinoctial points round the circum- 
ference of the globe in 49,000 years. An inequality, however, is sup- 
posed, having a period of 7000 years, by which the mean precession 
is alternately augmented and retarded 18 degrees. It is difficult to 
say whence a theory so at variance with the phenomena could be 
derived. The general opinion is, that these tables were constructed 
by Isaac Ben Said, a Jew, but others suppose that Al Cabit and 
Aben Ragel, the preceptors of Alonso, were the real superintendents. 
The numbers above cited, in speaking of the precession, have been 
supposed, from their connexion with the number 7, and the difficulty 
of accounting for them otherwise, to have been the ideas of a Jew. 
These tables are constructed for the meridian of Toledo, and the 
epoch 1256. They were not held in much esteem by succeeding 
astronomers. Regiomontanus says. 1 beware lest you trust too much 
to blind calculation and Alphonsine dreams.' And Tycho Brahe, 
who reports that 400,000 ducats had been spent upon them, laments 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



63 



for the great labour which these most learned rabbins 
had, together with himself, undergone, for the sake of 
the advancement of literature and learning in his king- 
dom, confirmed the Jews iu their ancient rights and 
privileges, by the imposition of heavy penalties upon 
all who should infringe upon the same. Since, how- 
ever, in his time the Hebrews became possessed of 
too much liberty and committed divers crimes, he 
forbad them in one of his laws of Partidas, 13 on pain 
of death, to preach to or attempt to convert any Chris- 
tian. 14 He likewise commanded them all to wear a 

that this sum had not been employed in actual observation of the 
heavens. A full account of their contents may be seen in Delambre, 
Hist, de V Ast. du Moyen Age, p. 248. Till the time of Copernicus 
and Tycho Brahe, they continued in general use, being, in truth, 
-with some modifications, a body of Ptolemaean astronomy. They 
-were first printed in 1483 by the celebrated Rat dolt of Venice. A 
copy of this editio princeps is in the Royal Library at Paris. Sub- 
sequent editions appeared in 1488, 1492, 1517, 1521, 1545, 1553." — 
Translator. 

13 " His enemies have endeavoured to deprive this learned prince 
of the merit of having been the author or compiler of Las Partidas, 
pretending that this code was written by his father. It is, however, 
worthy of remark that every one of the Partidas begins with one 
letter of his name, forming the following acrostic t 

1st Al servicio, &c. 
2nd La fe catolica, &c. 
3rd Fizo nuestro Sen or, &c. 
4tli Onras senaladas, &c. 
5th Xascen entre, &c. 
6th Sesudamente, &c. 
7 h Olvidanza y atrevimiento, &c." 
Penny Cyclopsedia. — Translator. 

14 Partida 7 a 5 tit. 24, ley 2 a : " Moreover, they must take special 
care not to preach to nor attempt to convert any Christian to Ju- 



64 



HISTOEY OF 



[bk. 



badge of red cloth on their left shoulder, that they 
might be known to be Jews, according to the in- 
junction issued by Gregory the Eleventh to the bishop 
of Cordova, and the direction of the Lateran Council, 
and threatened all who should disregard this law with 
the penalty of ten gold maravedis, and, in default of 
payment, with ten lashes, to be inflicted on them in 
public : 10 this king also spoke of the many improper and 
outrageous doings between Christian men and J excesses, 
and also between Jeivs and Christian women, for (says 
he) in the country houses they line and die ell together. 
He ordained that the Christians should not receive 
medicine 16 from the hands of the Hebrews, nor eat 
with them, nor drink wine made by them, nor would 
he allow of their getting into the same bath together. 17 
At the same time, in the second law of the twenty- 
fourth title, in the seventh partida, he made the fol- 

daism, either by eulogizing their law or reviling ours. "Whoever shall 
offend in this particular, will render himself liable to capital punish- 
ment and confiscation of property." 

15 Same partida and title, law eleventh: " If any Jew shall neglect 
to wear that badge, we order him to pay ten gold niaravedis every 
time that he shall be discovered without it ; and if he cannot pay the 
money, then let him receive ten lashes in public." 

16 Same partida and title, law eighth : " Let no Christian accept 
medicines or purges prepared by the hands of Jews ; but he may take 
them by the advice of a Jewish physician, provided only that they 
be prepared by a Christian who knows and understands the nature 
of their ingredients." 

17 Same partida and title, law eighth : " Let no Christian man or 
woman invite a Jew or Jewess, nor accept an invitation from one of 
them to eat and drink together, nor drink wine prepared by them. 
W r e further command that no Jew have the audacity to bathe in the 
same bath with Christians.'' 



II.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 65 

lowing ordinance : u Because we have heard say that 
in some places the Jews have commemorated and do 
still commemorate the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ 
on Good Friday in a scoffing manner, stealing children 
and crucifying them, and making waxen images and 
crucifying them when they cannot procure children ; 
we order that, in case a report of any such thing having 
been done shall henceforth arise, if it can he proved, 
all engaged in such act be taken, seized, and brought 
before the king, and whensoever he shall be convinced 
of its truth, it shall be his business to issue his warrant 
for putting them to an ignominious death, how many 
soever they be. We moreover forbid all Jews from 
quitting their barrier on Good Friday, and enjoin them 
to remain in it, and keep close till the Saturday morn- 
ing ; and if they act in defiance of this law, we declare 
them no longer entitled to any compensation for damages 
or for insults then offered them by the Christians." 

The framing of this law by Alfonso the Tenth for 
the punishment of those Jews who crucified children 
in commemoration of the death and passion of Jesus 
Christ, was owing to the idle tales which ran upon 
the tongues of a gossiping and superstitious people. 
Even the monarch himself who ordered this law to 
be written, was not sure that the observers of the 
Mosaic ritual were guilty of such atrocities : this may 
be proved by a mere glance at those words because toe 
have heard say, and also by his excluding the magis- 
trates from the hearing of charges brought against the 
authors of this crime ; for the accused were to be 

F 



66 



HISTORY OF 



IK. 



brought into the immediate presence of the king, in 
order that he, after satisfying himself of the truth of the 
charges, might condemn them to an ignominious death. 
If Alfonso the Learned had been sure that such deeds 
were perpetrated, he would hare spoken of them in the 
same way as of any other crimes, and not have declared 
in his law that he acted upon hearsay evidence, nor 
would he have declined committing the investigation 
of such causes to others, reserving the hearing of them 
to himself and his successors in the crowns of Castile 
and Leon. 

These crucifixions of innocent children by the Jews 
were mere fables, invented by ignorant old women, in 
order to frighten into good behaviour those naughty 
children that try to obtain whatever they want by 
crying for it. As the vulgar are pleased with every- 
thing that is odd and strange, they hit upon the ex- 
pedient of giving out that so barbarous an amusement 
as this was commonly practised by the Jews : and 
hence it was, no doubt, that these lying stories came 
to be reported to king Alfonso the Learned, who, un- 
willing to let persons guilty of such offences (if per- 
adventure such persons existed) escape the punishment 
they deserved, spoke of the authors of those crimes in 
the manner and form briefly described above. 

If this be not the case, then let those who still strive 
to defend as truths the words which passed from mouth 
to mouth among the blind and ignorant vulgar respect- 
ing such acts of the Jews, tell us what object the latter 
could have in perpetrating such barbarities ? Was i: 



V 



ft.] THE JEWS IK SPAIN. 67 

written in the books of their law that all who observed 
the Mosaic ritual were under any obligation to com- 
memorate in so brutal a way, on Good Fridays, the 
death to which their ancestors put J esus Christ ? 

The story is a fiction made to pass current among the 
people by reason of the frivolity of the Spanish Chris- 
tians, as well as by reason of their hatred and contempt 
for all the Hebrews, and is just like that now current 
anions: the vulgar that the Jews have tails : for as the 
learned in their law were called raMs, 18 whence the 
name rabbins, the people, doubtless, for the purpose 
of ridiculing them, or else because they really believed 
the truth of such an absurdity, began to circulate this 
story, which has no more truth 19 in it than the one told 
of persons employing themselves in crucifying children 
in commemoration of our Saviour's passion. 

Let not those who differ from me imagine that they 
upset my arguments by saying that this story is mentioned 
in the laws ; for all know that legislators are men, and 

18 Rabo is the Spanish for a tail, — Translator. 

19 One cannot help being struck with the gravity witli which the 
author concludes this paragraph. Truly, Spaniards are very odd 
people, and Spain is a very odd country. I cannot resist the tempta- 
tion to give an extract, in this place, from a book lately published by 
my friend, Mr. Clark. " Some sceptic present interposed with a doubt 
as to whether Jews had tails really or not. The majority held that 
it was unquestionable ; but as one or two still questioned it, the dis- 
pute was referred to Senor Vazquez, a travelled man. He quietly 
decided the matter in the affirmative ; ■ for,' said he, 1 when I was in 
London, I saw Baron Rothschild, who is a Jew of a very high caste, 
and he had a tail as long as my arm.' So the sceptics were silenced, 
and smoked the cigar of acquiescence." (Gazpaeho ; or, Summer 
Months in Spain.) — Translator. 



68 HISTORY OF [BK- 

consequently liable, in all respects, to human infirm- 
ities, and apt to be guided in their decisions by the 
deceptions of false counsels or by error of judgment, 
In Alfonso the Learned. I admire the most eminent 
man of his age and the monarch who used his utmost 
endeavours to have his subjects instructed in every 
branch of art and science : but, with all his know- 
ledge, there were many things of which he was un- 
able to take a dispassionate view, and in many things 
that he did, he could not help being dragged along by 
that ignorance which was so common in those days, and 
even for some centuries afterwards. In the same laws, 
in which he determines the punishment to be indicted 
upon the Jews who should be proved to have crucified 
children, he speaks of the penalties to which all were 
to be liable who should hold compact with the devil, 
or be wizzards or witches. 20 

30 The first Spanish, writer who ridiculed those that believed in 
witches was the learned physician of Segovia, Andres Laguna. In 
his translation and illustration of the work of Pedacio Dioscorides 
Anazarbeo, he gives a list of the ingredients, of which the unguents 
made to be applied to various parts of the body by the people called 
witches, were composed. As his words are very quaint, I take them 
down for the amusement of the curious. Speaking of some wizzards 
taken at Nancy hi 1545, he says. " Among other things found in the 
cave of those wizzards was a jar half full of a certain green unguent, 
similar to poplar ointment, with which they used to anoint them- 
selves ; the strength and offensiveness of its smell showed it to be 
a composition of herbs of the most chilling and soporific qualities, 
such as hem lock , night-shade, hen bane, mandrakes . Through the medium 
of the alguazil, who was a friend of mine, I contrived to get a box of 
it made, and, afterwards, when in the city of Mete, I had the execu- 
tioner's wife smeared over with it from head to foot: this woman 
had, through jealousy of her husband, entirely lost the power of 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN". 



69 



Besides the laws already cited, which, were made to 
the prejudice of the Jews by Don Alfonso, and placed 
among those contained in the Seven Partidas, he or- 
dained in those of the Fuero Eeal 21 that the children 

sleeping, and become, as it were, half frenzied. I had this done to 
her because she was a very fit subject to try such experiments upon., 
and also because she had made trial of innumerable remedies without 
effect, and, besides, I thought it was a very proper remedy and one 
which, judging from the smell and colour of it, could not fail of doing 
her good. The woman, all on a sudden, while being anointed, and 
with her eyes open like a rabbit and presenting the appearance of 
a boiled hare, fell into such a sound sleep that I never expected 
I should be able to awake her. However, by means of strong liga- 
tures and friction of the extremities, washings of oil, costus and 
spurge, fumes and vapours applied to the nostrils, and, finally, by 
the use of cupping-glasses, I made such dispatch with her that, at 
the expiration of six- and- thirty hours, I restored her to her reason 
and memory, though the first words she uttered were, 4 Why in evil 
hour have ye awaked me, for I teas surrounded with the greatest con- 
ceivable pleasure and delight? And with her eyes turned towards her 
husband, she said to him, smiling at the time, ' Rascal, I let thee know 
that I have put oil my horns for thee, and with a younger and finer gal- 
lant than theej After saying many other extraordinary things, she 
pressed us to leave her alone and let her fall again into her sweet 
sleep : from which we gradually diverted her, but she always had 
her head filled with some vain fancies. From which ice may conjecture 
that ichatever the unfortunate witches say or do is a mere dream produced 
by very chilling beverages and unctions, which have such a destructive 
effect upon the memory and imagination as to make the poor timid crea- 
tures fancy and firmly believe they have done, while awake, what they 
have dreamed in their sleep : which results cannot proceed from any other 
cause than the excessive coldness of the ointment, which is absorbed into 
their system and gets to their very marrow " Andres Laguna. — Pe- 
dacio Dioscorides Anazarbeo, on materia medica, translated from the 
Greek into the vulgar Castilian, and illustrated with clear and sub- 
stantial notes. Antwerp, 1555; Salamanca, 1570. 

21 Lib. iv. tit. ii. law 4. The first, second, third, fifth, and sixth 
laws of the same book and title are also aimed at the Jews. For 
these laws, see Opusculos Legales de Alfonso X., publicados por la 
Acad. Esp. — Translator, 



70 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



of Christians should not be suckled by Jewesses, nor 
the children of Jews by Christian women. 

His successors, kings Sancho the Brave, Ferdinand 
the Fourth, and Alfonso the Eleventh, renewed the 
above-mentioned statutes against the Jews : this was 
done by the first of the three in the Cortes holden 
at Valladolid in the year 1293 : by the second, in the 
Cortes holden at the same place in 1295, and in those 
holden at Medina del Campo in 1303 : and by the 
third, in 1310, 22 in the collection of Leyes de Estilo, 23 
and afterwards in the Ordenamiento de Alcala. 23 

In the council of Zamora in 1313, in that of Valla- 
dolid in 1322, 24 and in that of Salamanca in the year 
1335, several statutes against the Jews were passed: 
and though Pedro the First, of Castile, commanded the 
said ordinance which his father had made at Alcala, to 

22 There is either an error in these figures or in the name of the 
sovereign to whom this act is ascribed, for Alfonso the Eleventh did 
not come to the throne till the year 1312. — Translator. 

23 The Leyes de Estilo have been published with the Opusculos Le- 
gales of Alfonso X., because, in a manuscript book which contains 
the Fuero Real, they come immediately after it, but are not con- 
sidered by the editor to be the works of that monarch, though, pos- 
sibly, they may have been composed by Alfonso XI. : this collection 
contains some severe laws against the Jews, and so does the Ordena- 
miento de Alcala, published also by the Royal Academy in the Colec- 
don de Cortes de Leon y de Castilla, For the Ordenamiento de Alcala,* 
see also Semanario Erudito, vol. n., from page 65 to page 128. — 
Translator. 

24 The editor of the Coleccion de Cortes, &c, says he thinks this 
council took place in the year 1325, and that the chroniclers are 
wrong in supposing 1322 to be the true date. I cannot discover 
anything with regard to the other councils mentioned in this para- 
graph. — Translator. 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



71 



be observed and complied with, he continued for their 
benefit (though in opposition to the general wish of the 
states assembled in the Cortes at Valladolid) the juris- 
diction of an ordinary judge/ who was to hear them 
and deliver their pleas in civil causes, alleging, as a 
reason for this appointment, that the Jews were poor 
and miserable, helpless, and in need of protection™ 

This protection and countenance given to the Jews 
by Don Pedro, was very gratefully acknowledged by 
them, inasmuch as, in all the enterprises which this 
ill-fated monarch undertook against his rebellious 
brothers who embroiled the kingdom in civil wars, 
they assisted him with money, and, in some instances, 
even with arms. In 1355, several gentlemen of the 
faction of Don Fadrique, 27 Master of Santiago, and 

25 Juez ordi?iario, a term thus explained in the dictionary of the 
Royal Spanish Academy: "the judge who takes cognizance of 
causes and suits in the first instance." This expression first in- 
stance is a legal term ; in Spain there are judges of the first, the 
second, and the third instance. For the council of 1335 (or, as some 
think, 1336), see the Semanario Eruiito^ vol. xvi., from page 2 to 
230, but particularly page 178. See also Aguirre's Notitia Conciliorum 
Hispanice. — Translator. 

26 It is gratifying to find an example of benevolence displayed by 
a prince, to whom the epithet of Cruel was, not without reason, given 
by his subjects. I think it might have been, with equal if not greater 
justice, applied to his brother, Henry the Second, who murdered and 
then succeeded him. — Translator. 

21 This Don Fadrique was treacherously murdered by his brother 
Pedro, as will be shown by the accounts given by the historians 
Mariana and Lopez de Ayala : the latter I have abridged. 

" At the commencement of the year 1358, Don Fadrique, Master 
of Santiago, took Jumilla by force of arms and rescued it from the 
power of the Arragonese. When he had done this, the Master came 
to Seville, and on entering the Alcazar, was cruelly murdered by 



1% 



HISTORY Ot 



[bk. 



Don Enrique, Earl of Trastamara, 23 carrying these 
lords with them and placing them at their head, ap- 

some of the king's macebearers, by the command and before the eyes 
of the king his brother. This was the reward and favour conferred 
upon him for the service he had just rendered the king. It is certain, 
however, that Padrique was not pacifically inclined, and was at this 
time thinking of going over to the side of Arragon : I suspect that 
this must have come to the knowledge of the king, and that for this 
reason his death was accelerated. " (Mariana, Historic, General de 
Esparia, lib. xvii. cap. 2.) According to Ayala, Pedro wrote several 
letters to the Master of Santiago requesting the latter to come to him 
at Seville, and when Fadrique made his appearance, the king, who 
was playing at some game (expressed in Spanish by Las tablas f pro- 
bably backgammon, draughts, or chess), received him icith apparent 
kindness, and told him to go to his lodgings and return presently : 
the Master withdrew from the king's presence and went into another 
apartment of the Alcazar, which was occupied by Maria de Padilla 
and her daughters, whom he wished to see, and while there, dis- 
covered by the sad expression on Maria's countenance that all was 
not right : on this he went out into the courtyard, the doors of 
which he found locked, and discovered that his mules had been 
taken away : while he was hesitating as to what he should do, he 
was summoned by two gentlemen into the king's presence : in this 
dilemma he thought it best to obey, and entered the palace with no 
other attendants than the Master of Calatrava (who knew nothing of 
the plot) and two other gentlemen, for the persons who had charge 
over the gates had given directions to the porters not to admit any 
more. When they got to the iron palace in which the king then 
was, they found the door locked, and after they had waited a con- 
siderable time, during which they were joined by Pero Lopez de 
Padilla, chief mac eb ear er to the king, a secret door or postern (postigo) 
was opened in the palace, and Don Pedro appeared and said to Pero 
Lopez de Padilla, " arrest the master : " Pero Lopez enquired, "which, 
of them shall I arrest ? " the king replied, " the Master of Santiago." 
Pero Lopez de Padilla immediately laid hold of the master, Don 
Fadrique, and said to him, " surrender yourself." The master be- 
came much frightened and offered no resistance ; and then the king 
said to some of his macebearers who were present, " Macebearers, 
kill the Master of Santiago." This was more than they durst do at 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



73 



proached the walls of Toledo which had declared for 
the king ; and as a friend whom they had inside the 

first ; but one of the king's chamberlains, named Rui Gonzalez de 
Atienza, who was in the secret, cried lustily to the macebearers, 
" Traitors, what are ye about r don't ye see that the king commands 
you to kill the master?" Then the macebearers, seeing that the 
king had given the command, began to lift up then maces to strike 
Don Fadrique. The master, observing this, shook off Pedro Lopez 
de Padilla, bounded into the courtyard (corral), and attempted, 
though ineffectually, to draw his sword, for the hilt of it got en- 
tangled in his dress, and after a desperate struggle he was slain by 
the macebearers. The king, after this, went out of the Alcazar, in 
hopes of being able to lay hold of some of Fadrique' s attendants, but 
they were too quick for him, and all of them escaped, save one who 
had taken refuge in Maria de Padilla' s apartment, into which the 
king entered and found the man there, and, with the assistance of a 
gentleman, dispatched him. The king then went to the spot where 
the master lay, and, finding him all but dead, drew a dirk from his 
belt, and put it into the hands of a young chamberlain who gave the 
finishing stroke to the dying man. After this (humanity shudders 
at the recital !) the King sat down to dinner in the chamber where the 
master s corpse lay : this was called the room of the azulejos {en- 
caustic tiles). See Lopez de Ayala's Cronica del rev Don Pedro, ano 
1358, cap. 3. In Dunham's history of Spain and Portugal, this 
murder is said to have taken place in a corridor : I think this is 
incorrect, for at the time of his death the master was in the corral, 
which signifies a courtyard and not a corridor ; at least no such inter- 
pretation of it is given in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Aca- 
demy. Besides this, from the words do el rey estaba (where the king 
was), the writer appears anxious to show that Pedro was not in 
his usual apartment at the time he issued the order for his brother's 
murder ; and I cannot but think that this room was on the ground- 
floor : its being called the room of the azulejos will not, I think, help 
to prove anything with regard to its position, for, if my memory fail me 
not, there are several rooms in the Alcazar of Seville {some upstairs 
and some on the ground-floor) paved with these tiles. — Translator. 

28 According to Mariana, this Enrique, in the year 1369, had been 
victorious over his brother Pedro in a battle fought in the neighbour- 
hood of Montiel, and the king was compelled to shut himself up in 



74 



HISTORY OF 



city, opened a gate to them with the greatest secrecy, 
and without being observed by the party within, those 
ragamuffins threw themselves into the streets of Toledo, 
got possession of the Alcazar and the Jewry called 
Alcana, where they put to death all the Jews w T ho 
dwelt therein, (these were about 1200, men and women 
included), intending, no doubt, to plunder them of their 
property. 29 Thence they proceeded to the Grand Jewry, 

the castle of that town, which he was afterwards induced to quit by 
hopes of effecting his escape with the assistance of Bertrand Du- 
guesclin, to whom he had offered a large sum of money as well as 
considerable estates in Spain, on condition of his compliance with 
his (the king's) wishes ; but the fellow who had promised to do as 
he had been asked, played a double part and betrayed him, one 
night, to his brother. "When Pedro had entered Bertrand' s tent, 
the former said it was time that they should both be off. Enrique 
then entered it in armour : when he saw Pedro, he kept quiet for 
a little while, and was apparently alarmed : either the enormity of 
the crime he was about to commit had paralyzed and unnerved him, 
or, owing to the number of years that had elapsed since they had 
met, he did not recognize his brother. The bystanders vacillated 
between fear and hope quite as much as he did. At length a French 
gentleman said to Enrique, pointing out Pedro to him with his hand, 
* See, there is your enemy.' Pedro answered with his natural ferocity, 
/ am, I am. On this, Enrique drew his dagger and wounded Pedro 
in the face with it : they immediately closed with each other and 
both of them fell to the ground : it is said that Enrique was under- 
most, and that, with the aid of Bertrand (according to Froissart 
and Ayala, one Pocaberti) who turned them round and placed him 
uppermost" he was enabled to give his brother repeated stabs, with 
which he at last succeeded in killing him." (Historia General de 
Espana, lib. xvii. cap. 13.) Ayala's account is too long for insertion 
in this place, but those who like to consult it I refer to the Cronica 
del rey Don Pedro, ano 1369, cap. viii. — Translator. 

* 9 See Lopez de Ayala's Cronica del rey Don Pedro, ano 1355, 
cap. 7, and Mariana's Historia general de Espana, lib. xvi. cap. 21. 
The latter writer says they slew more than a thousand Jews, and 
plundered the mercers' shops in the Alcana.— Translator. 



II.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 75 

but did not meet with like success ; for the party with- 
in, apprized of their intention, placed themselves in a 
posture of defence, displaying great courage ; and pre- 
sently, with the assistance of a body of gentlemen who 
were on the king's side, made those who took part 
with the master retire. 

As a reward for this action, Don Pedro gave the 
Jews of Toledo permission to rebuild their synagogue, 
in which they placed a long inscription in the Hebrew 
tongue, which, for the sake of its curiosity, and because 
of its agreement with what T have said, I have tran- 
scribed and insert in this place : I follow the translation 
given in one of the works of Frey Francisco de Rades 
y Andrada. 30 

" Behold the sanctuary which was hallowed in Israel, 
and the house which Samuel built, and the wooden 
tower, where are read the written law, and the statutes, 
ordained by God and composed for the purpose of 
enlightening the minds of those that seek perfection. 

" This is the fortress of perfect literature, and these 
are the tvords they spoke and the deeds which they did 
to Godward, to assemble the people who come before 
the gates to hear the law of God in this house. 

"These are the mercies which God was pleased to 
show us, in raising up among us judges and princes 
to deliver us from our enemies and oppressors ; for 
after Israel's last captivity (which came of God, and 
was the third captivity from which God delivered us), 

30 Cronica de las tres ordenes y caballerias de Santiago, Calatrava 
y Alcantara. Toledo, 1572, 



76 HISTORY OF [BK. 

as there was no king in Israel to protect us. we dis- 
persed ourselves, some going to this country, some to 
that, where they are yearning for their country and we 
for ours. And we of this land have built this house with 
strong arm and power upraised. The day on which 
it was built was a great and a pleasant one to the Jews, 
who hearing of it. came from the ends of the earth to 
see if there were any means of raising some lord over us, 
who should be to us a tower of strength and have 
perfection of understanding, in order to rule our com- 
monwealth. Such a thing was not to be found among 
us who are settled in these parts : but Samuel z ' rose up 
among us and came to our help, and God was with 
him and us, and he found grace and mercy for us. 
He was a man of war and peace, of great influence with 
all people, and a famous architect. This took place 
in the days of king Pedro. May God be his helper, 
may He enlarge his dominions, grant him prosperity, 
exalt him and raise his throne above that of all princes ! 
God be with him and all his house, and let every man 
bow down before him; let the great and powerful in 
the land acknowledge him, and let all who shall hear 
his name rejoice to hear it, and let it be manifest that 
he is become the protector and defender of Israel ! 

w Under his protection and with his authority, we 
determined to build this temple. Peace be with him 

1 The person here alluded to is Samuel or Simuei Levi, treasurer 
to Pedro the Cruel. He was arrested by this king's order, in the 
year 1360, and put to the torture in order to make Mm declare what 
treasures he had, and died under it. (Lopez de Ayala). — Tramla:: 



II ] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 77 

and all of his descendants, and comfort in all their 
troubles. Xow hath God ransomed us from the power of 
our captivity : we have never had such a deliverance as 
this. With the advice of our learned men we erected 
this fabric. Great was the mercy of God to usward. 
Don Rabi Myer enlightened and guided us, blessed be 
his memory ! This man was born to be a treasure to 
our people, for, before his time, our countrymen used 
to have daily quarrels at the gate. This holy man gave 
such discharge and relief to the poor as was not done 
in the first days nor in ancient times. He was no 
other than a prophet sent of God ; a just man, and one 
that walked uprightly. He was one of those who 
feared God and had respect unto His holy name. 
Besides all this, he desired to build this house of 
prayer for the name and fame of the God of Israel. 
This is the feasting-house for those who desire to know 
our law and to enquire after God. It was God who 
commenced building this house and abode for Himself, 
and completed it in a happy year for Israel. It was 
God that increased the number of His servants by 
eleven hundred, after that this house was built for His 
service : these persons were men of rank and might, by 
whose instrumentality this house was to be supported 
with the strong arm and upraised power. Previously 
to this, there was not known in all the regions of the 
world a more feeble people than ourselves. But, O 
Lord our God, as Thy name is strong and powerful, 
thou wouldest that we should complete this house in 
good days and fair years, in order that Thy name might 



78 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



dwell therein, and the fame of the builders might be 
sounded in all the world, and that it might be said — 

THIS IS THE HOUSE WHICH THY SERVANTS BUILT TO 
INVOKE THEREIN THE NAME OF GOD THEIR REDEEMER." 

We learn from this inscription that king Pedro, by 
the advice of his intimate friend Samuel Levi, allowed 
the Jews to erect a new synagogue at Toledo — a thing 
they could not have done without the consent of the king 
of Castile, as they were forbidden to build such edifices, 
and were only allowed to keep their old ones in suf- 
ficient repair to prevent them from tumbling down. A 
striking proof of the special favor shown to the Jews by 
king Pedro appears in the following words of the in- 
scription just cited: May God be his helper, may He 
enlarge his dominions, grant him prosperity, exalt him 
and raise his throne above that of all princes ! God 
be with him and all his house, and let every man bow 
down before him ; let the great and poioerfid in the land 
acknowledge him, and let all toho shall hear his name 
rejoice to hear it, and let it be manifest that he is become 
the protector and defender of Israel. 

In the times of king Pedro, the learned Jew Rabi 
Don Santo flourished in Spain ; he was surnamed 
Carrion, because he was born at Carrion de los Condes, 
a town in old Castile. Some say he abjured Judaism 
and was afterwards a good Christian ; but this is ques- 
tioned by others who cite the first strophe of his book, 
entituled, Consejos y documentor del Judio Rahbz Don 
Santo al Bey Don Pedro (Counsels, &c. of the Jew 



II.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 79 

.Rabbi Don Santo to king Pedro), which he composed 
in his old age :— 

"Noble lord, both. high, and mighty, 
Listen to this sermon, 
Which Don Santo doth, indite 'ee. 
The Jew of Carrion." 

This genius seems not to hare met with much 
favor at king Pedro's hands, as appears from the follow- 
ing verses taken from his work just cited: — 

" The rose is not of little worth, 
"Which from the briar takes its birth. 
Nor less valued is good wine, 
Because the grape springs from the vine. 
The gosshawk's lowly place of rest 
Is good as any other nest. 
A moral also may be true 
Although 'tis taught you by a Jew. 32 
***** 

I'm good as others of my race, 

"Who from the king have got a place. " 

But it is a fact placed beyond all doubt, that Eabi Don 
Santo was converted to the Christian faith, for he has 
introduced a Christian doctrine into a poem, at the 
commencement of which we find these lines : — 

"The Virgin's praises shalt thou sing, 
And her a handsome off 'ring bring ; 
For she, God's holy mother, alway 
For us poor mortals deigns to pray." 

Eabi Don Santo was likewise author of a poem enti- 
tuled La Danza general de la muerte, en que entran 

32 There are some variations between the lines here given and 
those cited by Don Jose Rodriguez de Castro.-^ Translator, 



80 



HISTORY OF 



BK. 



todos los estados de ge?ites, (The general dance :: death, 
in which all classes join): this, as well as the above- 
cited works of his, are extant in manuscript, in the 
library of the Escurial. 

In the Cortes of Toro, in the year 1371. king Henry 
the Second issued a decree, which compelled the Jews 
to wear a badge by which they might be known/ 3 and 
also prohibited all observers of the Mosaic law from 
using such names as were then borne by Christians, 
He also declared that evidence s:iven by the former, 
in courts of law. against the latter, should be null and 
void. 

John the First likewise took measures to arrest the 
progress of that excess of liberty to which the Jews 
living in his territories were then aspiring, and, be- 
sides carrvinsr out the laws enacted against them in the 
Cortes of Soria 34 and Briviesca 35 by his predecessors : in 
those of Yalladolid 22 holden in the year 1388,* he 

33 Don. Pablo de Santa Maria, in his Scrutinium, [part 2nd,] chapter 
the tenth, says, " Consequenter etiani rex Henrieus secundus, bone 
memoriae, frater ejus, qui regmmi fratris habuit, multas caedes sen 
strages, antequam regnasset, in Judaeis fecit, tarn in urbe Toletana, 
quani in quibusdain aliis villis et castris in confinibus regni Castella? 
existentibus. Et cum hujusmodi rex Henrieus secundus regnayit. 
regno accepto a fratre suo Petro, ipse instituit in curiis generalibus, 
quod Judaei portarent signum distinctionis in suis Testibus, prout 
jura canonic a volunt ; quod tanien nunquam fuit auditum in His - 
pania, sed mdistincte cum fidelibus conversabantur : ex quo multa 
enormia et divinae legis deformia sequebantur. ,, (See also Lopez de 
Ayala's Cronica del Rey Don Enrique II., ano 1371, cap. vii.. and 
Coleccion de Cortes. &c.) — Translator. 

s4 a.d. 1380, see Coleccion de Cortes, &c. — Translator . 

85 a.d. 1387, see Coleccion de Cortes, &c. — Translator. 

85 a.d. 13S-5, according to the editor of the Coleccion de Cortes, &c. 
— Translator. 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



81 



ordered that certain imprecations, conjurations, blas- 
phemies, and curses upon the Christians and Chris- 
tianity should be erased from the Talmud, and that 
all who uttered them in future should be punished 
with the utmost rigour of the law. 

In these times there lived a courtier, by some called 
Don Juzaf Pichon, by others Don Jucaf Picho : he was 
regarded as a thoroughly honourable man, and, in con- 
sequence of his many good services, was appointed col- 
lector of the revenues and chief accomptant to Henry the 
Second. It is said that some envious persons bore ill-will 
to him, in consequence, no doubt, of his exalted position 
and the favour shown him by that monarch : and those 
who owed him a grudge (a large number of the prin- 
cipal Jews of the Aljamas), determining to put an end 
to the confidence which Don Juzaf enjoyed with the 
prince, accused him to the king of Castile, of certain 
crimes — an accusation which, though false, was enter- 
tained, and Henry was compelled to administer justice 37 
at the expense of the affection which the long-tried 
loyalty of this honourable Jew had kindled in his heart. 
Thus, after a struggle w r ith himself between gratitude 
and the justice which was expected of him and dreaded 
by him, he ordered Don Juzaf to be arrested \ and as 
the offences of which this Jew was accused called for 
a rigorous punishment, the king fined him forty thou- 

37 There is, at this day, no word in his language so hateful to 
a Spaniard as justicia {justice) ; the very sound of it makes him 
tremble from head to foot : the odious escribano (or low, pettifogging 
attorney) is the only person in Spain who does net shrug his should- 
ers when he hears it pronounced.-?- ZWmsfafor. 

G 



82 HISTORY OF [BK. 

sand doblas, ss to be paid to the crown, which were 
liquidated at the expiration of twenty days. 

As soon as Don Juzaf recovered his liberty, he began 
to complain of those who, with such perverse disposition, 
had brought these unjust accusations against him before 
the king, and had thereby destroyed the credit he had 
earned by so many good services rendered to Henry 
the Second ; s person. " How long," said he, w shall 
truth be banished from the courts and palaces of kings ? 
How long shall it cease to go hand-in-hand with virtue, 
to guide the steps of mortals, and to be their constant 
rule in the most important as well as the most trivial of 
their actions ? How long must honourable reward be 
exposed to the poisoned tongues of the wicked — those 
hidden asps that wear the guise of men — those hungry 
wolves and sly foxes — those tigers that are ever ready 
to devour the reputation of the good ? How long will 
people listen to their words which are more deceitful 
than the crocodiled cry or the siren's song ? But woe 
is me ! In evil hour was I born ! How can the dis- 
honest bestow honour, and how can the people dis- 
criminate between truth and falsehood, when the former 
cannot give what they do not possess, and the latter 
throw open the doors of their understanding to the 
belief of all that is deceitful and wicked, and close 
them when they see the light of truth appear? Oh, 
how blind and weak is human reason, how open to 
deception and villainy, how unfavourable to justice ! 

38 See Lopez de Ayala's Cronica del Rey Don Juan I,, aiio 1379, 
cap. 3, and Zumga's Anales de Sevilla, p. 242, column 1. 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



83 



Whithersoever I turn my eyes, I only meet with 
enemies, and am even scared by the shadow of my 
own body. If as an innocent man I suffer thus, what 
would have become of me had my heart been polluted 
with sin? Then, perhaps, I should have been more 
esteemed by the people, and if I had not entirely 
escaped envy, should have, at least, met with less 
persecution from her. Yet will I not invoke upon 
the wicked their deserts ; for even were I wicked, 
and were the people not to envy or persecute me, I 
should then reproach myself inwardly for my actions; 
be my own bitterest enemy, and have to endure the 
torment of knowing that this new reprover of my 
crooked steps was telling me the truth, while among 
my adversaries I now see nothing but deceit and the 
rancour of envy. And so, of two misfortunes, I would 
rather [choose the least and] have others for my enemies 
than myself." 

The punishment inflicted upon Don Juzaf Pichon 
by king Henry the Second did not mitigate the hatred 
of the Jews to him: immediately on the death of this 
monarch they went to his son and successor to the 
crown, John the First of Castile, who was at Burgos 
with the states assembled in parliament, and requested 
him to issue letters-patent {alb aid) addressed to Fernan 
Martin, the alguazil, ordering the latter to put to death 
the person pointed out to him as an evil-speaker {maU 
sin). When they proffered their petition to the king, 
they adduced arguments to show that it was a custom 
generally received among the Jews to put to death cer- 

G 2 



84 HISTORY OF [BK. 

tain men of little worth and of ill condition among them: 
these were the makings, who disturbed the peace of the 
community with their tongues, excited ill-feeling and 
animosity amongst one another, and gave occasion to 
many disasters and constant inquietude. John the First 
heard this verbal petition of the Jews, and as he was 
busily engaged in acquainting himself with matters of 
state and the proceedings of the Cortes, and it being, in 
short, the beginning 39 of his reign, he did not give due 
consideration to what he had been asked to do, and, 
without being aware of what he w^as about, issued the 
albala (fetters-patent) to his alguazil, directing him to 
see that the parties accused of being malsines were put 
to death. 

"When those who had obtained this permission were 
provided with the king's letters, they applied for others 
from the Jewish rulers and governors of the Aljamas of 
the kingdom, to authorize the alguazil, Fernan Martin, 
to put Don Juzaf Pichon to death. 39 The news of his 

39 Lope? de Ayala, in his Cronica del Bey Don Juan I., gives the 
following account of Don Juzaf s death : " The Jews took the alguazil 
with them, and w r ent to the abode of Don Juzaf Pichon, and had him 
called up, for it was very early in the morning and before the people 
of the house were up, and he was yet lying in bed when they came ; 
and they got into the house, and said that some men wanted to take 
away his mules for claims which they had upon him for money that 
he owed them. This was a mere invention for the purpose of getting 
liim to come down from his chamber. He immediately went down to 
one of the doors of the house, where those Jews who pretended that 
they wanted to take his mules were waiting for him. Here stood the 
king's alguazil who went with the Jews to execute the king's albala, 
which was shown to Juzaf, and no sooner did he see the Jews and 
the alguazil than he was taken by them and decapitated in his own 



II.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 85 

execution (which took place on the 21st of August, 
13T9) 40 reached the king's ears, together with the com- 
plaints of all the gentry in the kingdom, who were 
astonished and incensed at the commission of so gross 
an act of injustice ; for the virtue and integrity of Don 
Juzaf Pichon were universally known : he was a Jew 
in high esteem, even with the Christians, for the many 
good services he had performed during the lifetime of 
Henry the Second. 

The wickedness of the Jews who were engaged in 
this infamous act had the effect of stirring up the wrath 
of king John the First: he commanded that Don Zu- 
lema and Don Zag, who had given the order to put 
Don Juzaf Pichon to death, should themselves be pub- 
licly executed, and he would have subjected the al- 
guazil 40 to a similar punishment, had not the grandees 

house, without a word having been said to him." [ano primero, 
cap. 3. Ayala informs us that the king's coronation-festival, at which 
Juzaf Pichon was present, had not concluded when the Jews applied 
for the albala. — Translator,'] 

40 Lopez de Ayala says it was suspected that the king had issued 
the albala in compliance with the advice of some persons in his con- 
fidence who had been bribed by the Jews, Mariana, too, declares that, 
from the promptness with which the Royal Executioner (as he calls 
Fernan Martin) obeyed his orders, there was good reason to suspect 
him also of having received a bribe, Neither of these writers mentions 
the month or day on which Juzaf Pichon was judicially murdered, 
nor does Zuniga. Eugenio Amirola, in his notes on Ayala, states 
that, in the Compendio, the date given is Sunday the 21st of August, 
which however, he adds, could not be, for the 21st of August 1379 
was a Tuesday : what book he means by the Compendio, I am at a loss 
to know ; for, on referring to Garibay's work, I do not find the month 
or day of Juzaf Pichon' s death given ; neither does he refer to Ayala' s 
abridgement, because this he calls the Abreviatura. See Cronica de 



86 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



of the realm interceded in his behalf, and represented 
to the king that the man had merely done his duty and 
complied with the order contained in the albald, which 
the king himself had issued ; that he had been deceived 
by the Jews, and that no blame could attach to him for 
fulfilling the commands he had received. These reasons 
had some weight with J ohn, who ordered the execution 
of Fernan Martin to be respited, and commuted his 
punishment to the loss of a hand, which was publicly 
cut off by the executioner. The Jews who applied for 
the king's albald, and craftily withheld the name of the 
person to whose injury it was about to be issued, were 
also put to death, and the like punishment was inflicted 
upon a merino of the Jewry of Burgos, for being con- 
cerned in the tragical fate of Don Juzaf. 41 

This, however, did not abate the king's wrath against 
the persons who had so villainously deceived him, and 
he took away from them the power of life and death 
over persons of their persuasion — a privilege hitherto 
enjoyed by the aljamas of the kingdoms of Leon and 
Castile. 41 

[The author here interrupts his narrative with accounts 
of Jewish poets, with specimens of whose poetry he fills 

Don Juan 7., ano 1379, cap. in., with. Amirola's notes to the same ; 
Mariana, lib. xvni. cap. 3, ; Garibay's Compendio Historial f lib. xv. 
cap. 20; Zuniga's Anales de Sevilla, ano 1379, page 242. — Trans- 
lator. 

41 For these two paragraphs, see the same authors and chapters 
given in last note. The word merino signifies a shepherd, and also 
a judge or inspector of sheepwalks : in which sense the author uses it 
I know not ; the reader can take which he pleases.-^ Translator. 



II.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 87 

several pages : these effusions would be very tiresome, 
and even offensive, in some instances, to the English 
reader.] 

At this time a large number of Jews abjured Ju- 
daism: this abjuration, however, did not result from 
their conviction of the truth of Christianity, but rather 
from their fear of the common people who, under the 
cloak of devotion and piety, raised tumults in the Jew- 
ries for the purpose of murdering the inhabitants thereof, 
and making prizes of their goods and property. This 
violent conduct of the populace, which was attended 
with such dreadful consequences to the unhappy Jews, 
was brought about by the sermons preached at Seville 
by Don Fernando Martinez, Archdeacon of Ecija, in 
which he dwelt upon the usurious rate of interest they 
received on loans and goods sold on credit, to the great 
injury of the Christians : so vivid, in short, were the 
colours he employed to describe the wickedness of those 
who observed the Mosaic ritual, that many of the lower 
orders (always fickle,) regarding their destruction as an 
act of piety and service done to their crucified Lord, 
slew them in the open streets, without fear or shame 
and without the slightest opposition. The news of these 
disasters reached the ears of John the First, who saw 
no other mode of checking the seditious rabble than 
sending to the dean and chapter of the holy church 
letters, in which he strongly urged upon them the 
necessity of muzzling Archdeacon Fernando Martinez, 
owing to whose expressions, devoid alike of reason and 
moderation, these calamities and troubles had arisen i 



88 IIISTORY of [bK. 

For though his zeal is good and holy and worthy of 
admiration, I shall order him to beware how he at- 
tempts to stir up the people against the Jews by his 
sermons and harangues; for though the Jews are 
wicked and perverse persons, they live under my royal 
protection and authority, and must not be outraged: 
but whensoever they shall offend, they shall be punished 
according to lata, and I shall command this to be done. 42 
No sooner had John the First expired (in the year 1390) 
and his son and successor, Henry the Third, ascended th e 
throne of Castile, than the archdeacon of Ecija, freed from 
the irksome restraint he was under during the lifetime 
of the former king, 43 and unawed by respect for that 
monarch's memory, recommenced preaching against the 
Jews : he delivered his harangues in the most public 
and most frequented places of Seville, and inflamed the 
minds of the lower orders, setting before their eyes 
their own poverty and the riches of those who observed 
the law of Moses, to whose covetousness he attributed 
the misfortunes which the Christians endured, and is 
said to have addressed to them discourses of the follow- 
ing character : " Unhappy and everlastingly wretched 
people, who can relieve yotir misfortunes and calami- 

42 The king's words in the letter which, he wrote to the dean and 
chapter of Seville about this affair in 1388. -^Andles de Sevilla por 
Zuniga, [ano 1388. — Translator.} 

43 The archdeacon appears to have taken advantage of the king's 
youth and the unsettled state of the kingdom during his minority ; 
for when John the First died, Henry the Third was only eleven years 
old. See Zuniga's Anales de Sevilla, page 252* and Lopez de Ayala's 
Cronica del Rey Don Enrique in., ano 1391, caps. v. and xx* — Trans* 
lator* 



ilj THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 89 

ties ? Do ye see with what a cruel famine yourselves, 
your wives, and your children are afflicted? Never 
shall there be a mitigation of it ; never shall ye break 
the chains which bind 44 you to misery ; never shall ye 
taste those sweets which inconstant fortune is wont to 
offer mortals ! Woe to thee, thou race born to mis- 
fortune alone ! Famine attacks thee, and thou canst not 
procure money to relieve thee from it, for the few pieces 
which would enable thee to go through the bitterness 
of life with less toil, are buried for ever in those secret 
chests of iron in possession of the Jews. These men 
are the constant foes to the name of Christ — they think 
to blot it out from the face of the earth, and strive, by 
every means which presents itself to their eyes, to 
destroy the Christian people. Unhappy generation ! 
thou art about to disappear from the face of the earth, 
and to leave thy children in bondage to those who did 
not scruple at crucifying their Lord ! What love, what 
pity, what good offices can they expect from such cruel 
executioners as these ? Cursed be the moment that we 
allowed these birds of prey to build their nests nigh our 
dwellings ; for this very proximity affords them greater 
facilities for hiding from our eyes all that they rob us 
of! Let those ill-advised shepherds who allow wolves 
to live among the sheep, be awakened. Let the bark- 
ings of the faithful dogs be heard, now that the flock is 
on the point of being devoured and of getting beyond 
the reach of help. But how are they to be awakened 
who have fallen into the profound sleep of a blind con- 
u Literally, moon\ — Translator. 



90 HISTORY OF [BK. 

fidence? The butchering wolves cannot be scared by 
stones dexterously hurled from the slings, because the 
hands of the shepherds are cast down to the ground. 
The bowstrings are broken, the steeled barbs of the 
arrows wear a coating of rust: the dogs that watch 
over the flocks are few in comparison with the number 
of the wild beasts. Alas, unhappy lambs ! what will 
become of you, unless ye derive strength from weak- 
ness, and endeavour to defend yourselves against your 
watchful and savage enemies ?" 

Thus, urged on by the sermons of archdeacon Fer- 
nando Martinez, the fulness of the people's animosity 
burst upon the Jews, and they began publicly to up- 
braid such of them as had the reputation of being great 
misers, or of having attained power by means of their 
wealth. Don Alvar Perez de Guzman, chief alguazil 45 
of Seville, Euy Perez de Esquivel, and Fernan Arias 
de Quadros, the two alcaldes, determined to punish 
these excesses of the people, and therefore arrested 
several of the ringleaders in those disorders, and sen- 
tenced two of them to be publicly whipped on Ash- 
Wednesday, the 15th of March, 1391. But the mob, 
enraged at this just act of severity, tumultuously as- 
sembled, with the fixed determination to prevent the 
execution of it at all hazards. The chief alguazil 45 and 
Count Niebla in vain strove to appease the tumult by 
addressing the people and employing the strongest ar- 
guments they could think of : meanwhile the rabble, 

45 The office of alguazil mayor or chief alguazil answers, I think, 
nearly to that of our high constable, — Translator. 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



91 



now grown more insolent in their demands, stoned 
those who had charge of the delinquents, rescued 
the latter out of their hands, and put them into the 
cathedral. They then turned their fury upon the J ew- 
ries, where they commenced wounding and slaying 
every man, woman, or child they met, besides others 
who had concealed themselves ; they made prizes of the 
jewels and money which they found in the houses, and, 
finally, dashed to pieces everything belonging to the 
Jews. The authorities of Seville, assisted by the no- 
bility, came to the help of the poor Hebrews, and suc- 
ceeded in saving most of their lives and rescuing a 
portion of the large spoil which the licentious and 
savage mob had gotten into their clutches. 

"When the tumult was appeased, the chief alcaldes 
concluded that, were they to punish the numerous de- 
linquents concerned in those acts of inhumanity, the 
malcontents and others who yet coveted the estates of 
the unfortunate Jews would again be exasperated, and 
the city reduced to a strait still more dreadful than the 
last. 

They determined, therefore, on proclaiming the par- 
don of the authors of these offences, while the hapless 
J ews, intimidated by the late popular outbreak, had not 
yet dared to go out into the streets, and were now 
thinking of professing Christianity, in order to secure 
their lives and properties from the hatred and covetous- 
ness 46 of the people. 47 

46 Literally, ambition. — Translator. 

47 See Anales de Sevilla por Zuniga t p. 252, and Lopez de Ayala's 
Cronica del Rey Don Enrique in., a£o 1391, cap. v. — Translator. 



92 HISTORY OF [BK. 

The Archdeacon, elated with the success of his oratory, 
and observing the insolent carriage of the plebeian folks 
after the impunity which followed their late attempt, is 
reported to have preached again on Sunday the 9th of 
July, in the same year, against the Jews ; to have pour- 
trayed their avarice in the most vivid colours, and to 
have set forth in high-flown language the calamities 
that threatened the Christians, while they suffered these 
foes to the name of Christ to live with perfect freedom, 
according to their law, within the cities of Castile. 

The people— animated on the one hand with the 
desire of getting possession of the estates of the Jews, 
and, on the other, regarding the latter as brambles, net- 
tles, and caltrops which grow amidst the cornfields 
and draw off all the substance of their mother earth, 
thus leaving them without the slightest nutriment, and 
rendering them liable to be wasted and burned up by 
the rays of the sun, and to be deprived of strength and 
power to resist the violence of the stormy winds — created 
a fresh tumult and ran to the Jewries, with intent to 
exterminate all the Israelites born or dwelling in them. 

These barbarians, unworthy to bear the name of 
Christians, caused four thousand Jews to perish by the 
edge of the sword. Those that escaped unhurt or with 
but slight wounds from the terrible tumult raised by 
that unbridled rabble, fearful of the people's wrath, and 
awed by the last two insurrections, professed Chris- 
tianity at once. 48 Such was the method employed by 

48 See Anales de Sevilla por Zuniga, p. 252, and Lopez de Ayala's 
Cronica del Bey Don Enrique, in. afio 1391, cap. xx. — Translator, 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



93 



a set of wicked Christians to make the truth of religion 
take root in the minds of the Jews ; and as this was the 
effect of constraint and fear, but a short time elapsed 
ere they began to prevaricate, as was natural enough : 
for I do not believe any one can love the truth when, 
in order to bring it home to him, his adversaries have 
recourse to arms and intimidation, fire and sword. 
These means, of which the tyrants of this world avail 
themselves for the purpose of maintaining their power, 
or obtaining, with lightning-like rapidity, the ends 
which they have in view, are attended with evil con- 
sequences to the people for a time ; but they are after- 
wards converted into arms, to be employed in the 
destruction and extermination of the tyrants themselves 
who have used them — a truth of which abundant in- 
stances occur in history. 

When intelligence of what the people of Seville 
had done reached Cordova, Toledo, Zaragoza, Valencia, 
Barcelona, and Lerida, risings in these and many other 
cities took place. Henry the Third dispatched letters 
to the alcaldes of all these cities, directing them on no 
account to allow those wicked proceedings, of such 
pernicious consequences to the unhappy Jews, to go on ; 
but neither cities, towns, nor gentry, cared a fig for the 
king's mandamus. The people, above listening to any 
admonition, became exceedingly haughty in their de- 
meanour, in consequence of the success which had 
attended their rebellions, seditions, and massacres. 49 

49 Lopez de Ayala, Cronica del Key Don Enrique in,, ano 1391, 
cap. xx, — Translator. 



94 



HISTORY OF 



From 1891 to 1395, in the latter of which years 
Henry determined to go down from Segovia to Anda- 
lusia to punish the authors of the past riots, he dis- 
guised the resentment which he felt at seeing his com- 
mands disobeyed. He entered Seville on the 13th of 
December, and on the same day ordered Fernando 
Martinez, archdeacon of Ecija, to be arrested, for 
having, by means of his harangues, caused the seditious 
movements of the people against the Jews. 50 

Master Gil Gonzalez de Avila, 51 speaking of the 
Archdeacon, says that the king punished him in order 
that no one might, in future, attempt, under the cloak 
of piety, to stir up the people. We are unable to 
gather from any of the historians what punishment this 
fellow suffered. Zuniga asserts that he died some 
years after, 52 with a strong odour of sanctity. 

The object of these popular outbreaks against the 
Jews is declared in the Chronicle of Henry the Third, 
composed by that illustrious gentleman Pero Lopez de 
Ayala, in these words, all this was love of pillage and 
plunder rather than devotion™ 

In those days lived a famous Jew in Spain, named 
Jehosuah Halorqi, who was born at Huesca, in the 
year 1350, as is supposed; he was a noted Talmudist 

50 Anales de Sevilla por Zuniga, p. 257. — Translator. 

51 Historia de la vida y hechos del Key Don Henrique ni. de 
Castilla. [The passage from this writer, given in the text, is quoted 
by Zuniga. Anales de Sevilla, p. 257. — Translator .] 

52 Namely, in 1404. See his Anales de Sevilla, pp. 257 and 275.— 
Translator. 

53 Ano 1391, cap. xx, — Translator. 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



95 



and one of the principal masters of the law of Moses, 
and had studied medicine with great success. He ab- 
jured Judaism, and, on professing Christianity, took 
the name of Jeronimo de Santa Fe, which the Spanish 
Jews could not patiently endure, but were much dis- 
pleased and shocked at seeing a man so well acquainted 
with the Holy Scriptures as he was, declare their rites 
to be vain ; and for this reason they used scoffingly to 
call him Halorqi the Blasphemer^ 

It has been said that the conversion of this Jew 
was effected by the preaching of San Vicente Ferrer, 
who used, about that time, to travel about the cities 
of Spain and overturn the law of Moses, not by dis- 
courses which incited the people to attack the unhappy 
Jews, as was the practice of the Archdeacon of Ecija, 
but by leading them into the way of truth through the 
medium of kind words, forcible and conclusive reason- 
ings, and evangelical discourses. 50 

Owing to the reputation which Jeronimo de Santa 
Fe enjoyed in all 56 these kingdoms as well as in foreign 
s tates, and to the credit and estimation in which he 
was holden for his deep acquaintance with the occult 
sciences, he obtained the honour of an invitation to the 

54 Jose Rodriguez de Castro, in his Biblioteca de los Rabines 
Espanoles, says that the Jews formed a Hebrew word, which sig- 
nifies Blasphemer, out of the initials of his name Jeronimo de Santa 
Fe : this was the unkindest cut of all. — Translator, 

55 See the same work. — Translator. 

56 Modern Spain consists of several kingdoms, formerly separate. 
"While I write these lines, I have before me a two-cuartos piece of 
the year 1845, which bears on its reverse the inscription Reyna de las 
Espaiias, {Queen of the Spains). — Translator, 



96 



HISTORY OP 



Court of the Spanish Antipope, Pedro de Luna, who 
was anxious to have him near his person, in order that 
he might cure him when suffering from any of those 
numerous infirmities which so obstinately beset our mor- 
tal bodies. This was that Pedro de Luna who wished 
to rule the church from his residence at Avignon bv 
the title of Benedict the thirteenth. 

About this time an event occurred which served 
to increase the applause so deservedly and so univer- 
sally bestowed upon the convert Jeronimo de Santa F6, 
for his great learning. Jeronimo de Zurita, in his 
Anales de Aragon, relates that in the year 1413, owing 
to the obstinacy of the Jews in refusing to be converted 
to the law of grace, new methods were tried to over- 
come those objections raised by them, which prevented 
their admitting the light of truth into their minds. 
" By the Pope's command, the principal Doctors and 
Rabbins of all the Aljamas in the kingdom assembled 
in the city of Tortosa, for the purpose of being publicly 
admonished, in his presence and in that of his whole 
Court, to acknowledge the error and blindness in which 
they walked. The principal Eabbins were Eabi Ferrer, 
Master Salomon Isaac, Eabi Astruch el Levi of Alcaniz, 
Rabi Joseph Albo, Eabi Matatias of Zaragoza, Master 
Todroz, Benastruc Desmaestre of Girona, and Eabi 
Moises Abenabez : and though there were many dis- 
tinguished Masters and Doctors of Divinity at the 
Pope's Court, who were men of learning and great 
divines, the Pope was, nevertheless, anxious that in the 
questions and disputations propounded, the care of 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



97 



instructing and teaching those Rabbins should be more 
especially and particularly entrusted to Jeronimo de 
Santa Fe, his physician, inasmuch as the latter was 
well read and grounded in the Old Testament, together 
with the glosses upon it, and all the treatises of the 
Rabbins, as well as their Talmud ; by the authorities 
and sentences of which it was the Pope's intention that 
they should be convinced and led to see the blindness 
and unsoundness of their doctrine, the obstinacy of 
their errors and lives, their rash and perverse inter- 
pretation of their law. The first assembly was holden 
on the 7th of February last year (1413); and, in the 
presence of the Pope, his College, and all his Court, 
the questions and articles to be discussed and argued 
were propounded: the Pope attended other meetings 
besides this, and deputed the Minister General of the 
order of Preachers and the Master of the Sacred Palace 
^0 supply his place as President, during his absence. 
Of this learned assemblage was one Garci Alvarez de 
Alarcon, a man well acquainted with the Hebrew, 
Chaldaic, and Latin tongues. Andres Beltran, Doctor 
of Divinity, and almoner to the Pope, a man well read 
in Hebrew and Chaldaic literature, and originally of 
Jewish persuasion, materially helped to convince and 
bring over many of the principal families in the king- 
dom : he was a native of Valencia, and it was out of 
respect for his piety and learning that the Pope con- 
ferred the church of Barcelona upon him, by whose 
arguments the doubts respecting the translations of 



98 HISTORY OF [BK. 

the Bible^ which the Rabbins twisted as it suited their 
purpose, were resolved. 5557 

This is J eronimo de Zurita's account. The Jews 
who went to Tortosa, in order to take part in the 
famous disputation carried on there, were the following : 
six from Zaragoza, named, Zarachias Levita, Vidael 
Benvenista, M. Mathatias Izahari, Macaltiob (the nasi 
or chief of the Spanish Jews), Samuel Levita, and 
M. Moises ; one from Huesca, named Todros ; two 
from Alcoy, whose names were Joseph, son of Aderet, 
and Meir Galigon ; one from Daroca, named Astruch 
Levita ; one from Monreal, called Joseph Albo ; two 
from Monzon, named Joseph Levita and M. Jomtob 
Carcosa ; one from Montalban, called Abuganda ; three 
from Blesa, named Joseph Abbalegh, Bongosa, and 
M. Todros, son to Jecht of Gerona. 58 

On their arrival at Tortosa, they elected as their 
spokesman at the congress Vidael Benvenista, one of 
the most learned in their law, and immediately went 
to the Palace and presented themselves before Benedict 
the Thirteenth, who received them with great affability, 
and gave orders that they should be most comfortably 
lodged and entertained, and treated with the greatest 
kindness : he promised them also that they should 
meet with no molestation whatever, inasmuch as they 
had come in order to be convinced, or not, (as the case 

& Anales de Aragon por Jeronimo de Zurita, lib. xii. cap. 45. — 

Translator. 

58 See Rodriguez de Castro's Biblioteca de los Rabinos Espanoles, 
vol* i. p. 207, column 2, fol. edition, Madrid 1781. — Translator. 



II.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 99 

might be) of the erroneousness of their doctrines, and 
not to be vexed or harassed in any way. 59 

On the day after their arrival at Tortosa, the J ews 
attended again at Benedict's palace, and found the hall 
in which the assembly was to take place crowded with 
persons high in authority and rank. Sixty chairs were 
occupied by Cardinals, Bishops, and other dignitaries. 59 

When the congress met and silence was obtained, 
Benedict the Thirteenth briefly addressed the Jews, 60 
and then Jeronimo de Santa Fe commenced an ha- 
rangue, in which he set forth with clearness of argu- 
ment and gracefulness of language the fulfilment of the 
prophecies relating to the Messiah's advent, an event still 
looked for by the Jews. In answer to this harangue, 
Vidael Benvenista delivered another, the design of 
which was to show, by arguments taken from the 
Talmud, that the Messiah had not yet come. I should 
observe that both these discourses were expressed in 
very elegant Latin ; for both the disputants were men 
of general learning. Next day, another harangue, in 

59 See the last note and pages which foUow the passage referred 
to. — Translator. 

60 Vos Hebraeorum sapientissimi scitote, me non hie adesse neque 
vos advocasse ad disputandum nostra-ne an vestra vera sit reiigio. 
Gerto certius mihi est, religionem meam verissimam esse. Yestra 
quidem lex olim vera fuit, at abrogata ea nunc est. Non alio auctore 
hue accersiti estis nisi Hieronymo, qui Messiam jampridem venisse, 
se demonstraturum dixit, ex Talmude vestro : quern magistri vestri, 
vobis longe sapientiores, olim condiderunt : proinde aliud disputare 
cavete. — Speech of Pedro de Luna (Benedict the Thirteenth) to the Jews 
assembled at Tortosa. [Rodriguez de Castro's Biblioteca de los Rab. 
Esp., p. 205, col. 2nd, — Translator.'] 

H2 



100 



HISTOUT OF 



support of what Vidael Benvenista had said, was de- 
livered by Zarachias Levita the Jew ; and on the third 
day of their assembly, that famous disputation com- 
menced, which lasted from the 7th of February, 
1413/ 1 till the 12th of November, 1414, 61 the result 
of which was that all the Jews who were present at the 
debate, and took an active part in it, (either by speechi- 
fying, or by throwing such light as their wisdom sug- 
gested on those points for which they so pertinaciously 
contended), were converted to the faith. Rabi Ferrer 
and Joseph Albo were the only persons among them 
who contumaciously adhered to their original opinions. 

Habi Astruch then presented to Benedict the Thir- 
teenth a confession in his own name and in the name 
of the other Jews, wherein they declared themselves 
to have had the worst of the argument, and in con- 
sequence abjured the errors of their ancient law, and 
sincerely embraced the Christian faith. When this 
confession 52 had been read before Benedict and the 

61 These dates are taken from a manuscript in the Escurial, cited by 
Rodriguez de Castro in his Biblioteca de los Rabines Espanoles, 
vol. I., see from pages 206 and 207. — Translator. 

02 Et ego Astruch Levi cum debita humilitate, subjectione et reve- 
rentia Reverendissimae Paternitatis et Dominationis Domini Cardi- 
nalis, aliorumque Reverendorum Patrum et Dominorum hie prae- 
gentium respondeo, dicens : Quod licet auctoritates Tahnudicae contra 
Talmud tarn per Reverendissimum meum Dominum Eleemosynarium, 
quam per honorabilem Magistrum Hieronymum allegata?, sicut ad 
liter am jacent, male sonent ; partim quia prima facie videntur 
hsereticse, partim contra bonos mores, partim quia sunt erroneae ; et 
quamvis per traditionem meorum Magistrorum habuerim quod illae 
habeant vel possint alium sensum habere : fateor tamen ilium me 



II.] THE JEWS 1^ SPAIN. 101 

Cardinals, dignitaries, and other persons in whose pre- 
sence the converts were, the Antipope ordered the new 
decrees (which from that moment he enforced upon all 
Jews who persisted in adhering to their ancient law,) 
to be read. These decrees were then inserted in the 
bull which Benedict published in the city of Valencia 
on the 11th of May, 1415. The substance of them 
is contained in the following heads, taken from the 
Biblioteca de los Rabines Espaholes (Library of Spanish 
Babbins), arranged and prepared by Don Jose Rodri- 
guez de Castro. 

" First. All people in general, without respect of 
persons, are forbidden to hear, read, or teach the 
doctrine of the Talmud, publicly or privately ; and 
within the space of one month all copies of the Talmud, 
glosses upon it, summaries, compendiums, and other 
writings whatsoever, bearing directly or indirectly upon 
the said doctrine, that can be found, are to be deposited 
in the Cathedral church of each diocese ; and diocesans 
and inquisitors must look to the due observance of this 
decree, and visit in person or by procuration (once 

ignorare. Ideo dictis auctoritatibus nullam fid em adhibeo, nee 
auctoritatem aliqualem, nee illis credo, nec ea quidem defendere 
intendo, et quamcunque responsioneni per me superius datam huic 
meae ultimse responsioni obviantem, illam reyoco, et pro non dicta 
habeo in eo solum in quo huic contradicit. Omnibus Judaeis et 
Rabbinis totius congregationis ibidem praesentibus (Rabbi Ferrer et 
Rabbi Joseph. Albo duntaxat exceptis) magna yoce clamantibus et 
dicentibus : Et nos in dicta cedula concordamus et ilii adhaeremus. — 
Schedule of Babz Astruch, presented in his own name and in the name of 
the other Jews converted at the assembly of Tortosa, [This passage is 
extracted from the manuscript spoken of in the last note], — Translator. 



102 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



every two years at least) all those places within the 
limits of their jurisdiction in which there are any Jews 
living, and punish all offenders with the utmost rigor." 

" Secondly. No Jew may have, read, or hear read, 
the book entituled mar mar jesu (because it is full 
of blasphemies against our Redeemer Jesus Christ)' 
nor any other book or writing which is injurious to 
Christians, or contradicts any of their doctrines, or any 
of the rites of the Church, in what language soever it 
be written : every person who violates this decree is 
to be punished as a blasphemer. 

u Thirdly. No Jew may, under any pretence what- 
ever, restore, mend, or even have in his house, crosses, 
chalices or sacred vessels, or bind books for Christians, 
in which the names of Jesus Christ or the Most Holy 
Virgin appear : and every Christian, whatever be his 
motive, that shall put any of these things into the 
hands of Jews, is to be excommunicated. 

" Fourthly. No J ew can be allowed to hold the 
office of a judge, even in lawsuits that may occur 
among Jews themselves. 

" Fifthly. All synagogues built or repaired in 
modern times are to be shut up, except in places where 
there is but one, which may in such cases remain open, 
provided such building be not excessively costly ; and 
where there are two or more of them, the smallest only 
may continue open : but should it be proved that any 
one of the said synagogues was formerly a church, 
it must be closed immediately. 

" Sixthly. No Jew may be a physician, surgeon, 



n.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



103 



shopkeeper, druggist, purveyor, marriage-maker (casa- 
mentero), or hold any public employment which shall 
make him acquainted with the affairs of Christians : 
nor may Jewesses be midwives or have Christian wet- 
nurses: nor may Jews employ Christians, or sell to 
them or buy of them meats for daily consumption, or 
be present with them at any banquet, or bathe in the 
same bath with them, or be stewards or agents in 
business for them, or learn any science, craft, or trade 
in the Christian schools. 

" Seventhly. In every city, town, or village where 
there are Jews, separate quarters must be appointed for 
them to dwell in, apart from the Christians. 

"Eighthly. All Jews and Jewesses must wear on 
their dress a certain device in red and yellow, of the 
size and form specified in the bull ; the men must 
wear it on their outer garment on the breast, the 
women in front. 63 

"Ninthly. In order to guard against the tricks 
which the Jews are in the habit of playing, and the 
usurious interest they are accustomed to exact, no Jew 
may have dealings, or make any contract, with Chris- 
tians.- 

63 In the Epitome de la Cronica de Don Juan II., by Jose Martinez 
de la Puente (Madrid, 1678), we find these words : " By the advice 
of San Vicente Ferrer, it was ordained that, in these kingdoms, the 
Jews should wear tabards (a kind of ancient Castilian cloaks) with a 
vermilion badge, and that the Moors should wear green capuces with 
a bright moon." [These capuces were old-fashioned cloaks, used as 
a holiday dress. See the dictionary of the Royal Academy. — Trans? 
lator.] 



104 HISTOHT OF [BK. 

" Tenthly. All Jews and Jewesses converted to 
the faith, and all Christians related to unconverted 
Jews, may be heirs to the latter, even though excluded 
from inheriting their property by testaments, codicils, 
last wills, or donations to people still living. 

K Lastly. In all cities, towns, or villages, in which 
there is, in the judgment of the diocesan, a sufficient 
number of Jews, three sermons are to be preached 
annually, on three several days : one on the second 
Sunday in Advent ; another on Easter-day ; the third, 
on the day in which that portion of the Gospel Cum 
appropinquasset Jesus Jerosohjmam, videns ciwtatem, 
fleoit super earn is chanted. All Jews more than twelve 
years old must be present at the preaching of these 
three sermons, of which the following are to be the 
subjects: in the first of them, the Messiah's advent is 
to be demonstrated from those passages of the Scriptures 
and the Talmud which have been controverted in the as- 
sembly at Tortosa : in the second, the Jews are to have 
the errors and absurdities contained in the Talmud 
pointed out to them ; and in the third, the destruction 
of the city and temple of Jerusalem, and the perpetuity 
of their captivity, according to the words of Jesus- 
Christ and the holy prophets, are to be explained to 
them. At the conclusion of each sermon, this bull 
is to be read, in order that offenders against it may not 
plead ignorance." 

After the famous dispute between Jeronimo de Santa 
Fe and the learned Eabbis of the Spanish Aljamas, 
many Jews were converted to the Christian faith : at 



II,] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 105 

Zaragoza, Calatayud, and Alcaniz, the number of con- 
verts was more than two hundred : at Daroca, Traga, 
and Barbastro, about a hundred and twenty families : at 
Caspe and Maella, five hundred persons : besides all 
the natives of the towns of Tamarit and Alcolea.^ 

Rabi Selomoh Halevi, who lived in Spain, was 
converted in the year 1390 : he was a Jew, born in the 
city of Burgos, where he was baptized by the name of 
Pablo de Santa Maria. He afterwards went to the 
University of Paris to study divinity, and there he 
took his Doctor's degree, and, owing to his universal 
reputation for learning and virtue, he obtained the 
dignities of Archdeacon of Trevino, Bishop of Carta- 
gena, and afterwards of Burgos, and, in addition to 
this, became high-chancellor in the kingdoms of Leon 
and Castile. He wrote several works for the con- 
version of the Jews and Moors to the Christian faith, 
among which is one entituled Scrutinium Sacrarum 
Scripturarum^ 

Here follows Esteban de Garibay's account of the 
life and acts of Pablo de Santa Maria. " The excel- 
lent Dr. Pablo, Bishop of Cartagena, was a very notable 
prelate : though a Jew, not only by lineage, but by 
persuasion also, he received the waters of holy baptism 
and renounced Judaism. This notable prelate had, 
before his conversion, holden many discussions about 

64 Zurita. Anales de Aragon. [Lib. xn. cap. 45, vol. in.— 
Translator.'] 

65 Printed at Burgos in 1591. [There is a copy of this work in 
the Cambridge University library. — Translator.] 



106 HISTORY OF [BK. 

the Jewish law with several learned catholic doctors, 
whose arguments (owing to that obduracy which he 
inherited from his ancestors,) had not the immediate 
effect of withdrawing him from Judaism: but it chanced, 
one day, that a doctor who was averse from contending 
with him on other than scriptural grounds, gave him 
the learned treatise written by the glorious St. Thomas 

Aquinas, called De Legibus, in which that holy 

doctor argues so admirably against the law of the Jews. 
Don Pablo read this treatise with much care and at- 
tention, and finding in it many secrets appertaining to 
Judaism, with which he (though the most learned 
Rabbi in these kingdoms) was unacquainted, he was 
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and said in his heart 
that the law of the Christians was, undoubtedly, the 
law of salvation to the world. He, afterwards, went 
to the Roman Pontiff, and at his persuasion, publicly 
declared and confessed that since this holy doctor 66 
(though better acquainted than himself with the secrets 
of the Jewish law,) professed the Evangelical law of 
Christ, the Christian was the true law and the way of 
salvation : and so he received holy baptism, and of his 
own accord ceased to continue in his former obduracy. 
Thus did Don Pablo become a Christian by means of 
St. Thomas's teaching. 

" This eminent man was, in course of time, and very 
deservedly, appointed to the see of Cartagena, and 
thence translated to Burgos, his native city. He was 
an excellent prelate, a great philosopher and divine, 
66 Viz. Thomas Aquinas. — Translator. 



II.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



107 



a fine preacher, and at the same time a wonderfully 
reserved and prudent man. He wrote many works, 
particularly the book entituled Scrutinium Sacrarum 
Scripturarum, which is of large size, the additions to 
Nicolao de Lyra's Postil on the Bible, a treatise on the 
Lord's Supper, and other works. He was not only a 
learned clerk himself, but, having married before his 
conversion to Christianity, he had three sons, learned 
clerks also : the most distinguished of these was Alfonso 
de Cartagena, dean of Segovia, immediate successor to 
his father in the see of Burgos, and author of the 
Genealogia de los Reyes de Castillo, y Leon, which has 
been sometimes cited. The next son was Gonzalo, 
bishop of Palencia, a prelate of great learning. The 
third was Alvar Garcia de Santa Maria, who is said 
to have written the Chronicle of King Henry, 67 which 
I have not seen, and part of the Chronicle of King 
John the Second. This notable prelate Pablo, from 
having been born at Burgos, is called by theologians 
El Burgense: he it was who, on his conversion, ad- 
vised King Henry (for good reasons, no doubt) not to 
admit any Jew or Jewish convert into the service of his 
royal household, to his counsels, or any other of the 
royal or public offices in his kingdoms, nor suffer him 
to administer the royal patrimony. It is a remarkable 
thing that, though he himself was one of them, this 
clever prelate should have entertained such an opinion 
of his countrymen." 68 

67 Henry the Third. — Translator, 

68 Compendio Historial, 2nd vol. pp. 400 and 401 in the Barcelona 
edition of 1628. — Translator. 



108 HISTORY OF [BK. 

Such is Esteban de Garibay's account. But, not- 
withstanding that the number of Jews converted to the 
faith was considerable, the majority of them still ad- 
hered to their former erroneous opinions. The towns- 
people, on their part, whether ruled in their actions by 
a feeling of devotion both barbarous and cruel, or by 
the desire of taking from the Jews, contrary to all 
reason, law, and right, the estates which the latter had 
inherited from their ancestors, and afterwards consider- 
ably improved and augmented by their own labour, 
ceased not to molest them. In the year 1473 they 
again disturbed the kingdom with tumults, when the 
Jews, who had turned Christians, became the objects 
of their attacks ; they masked their design of ill-treating 
and plundering them, under the plea that they were 
Judaizers. Miguel Lucas, constable of Castile, de- 
fended the unfortunate Hebrews of Jaen with all his 
might and dispersed the rebellious crowds, just as the 
sun bursts through and dispels the clouds which pre- 
vent him from darting his rays upon the earth. While 
the minds of the populace were exasperated at their ill- 
success and filled with resentment and hatred 69 against 
Miguel Lucas, they determined on putting him to death 
without mercy, out of revenge for his having prevented 
the destruction of the Jews dwelling in that city, who 
wore sheep's clothing and the cloak of Christians : ac- 
cordingly, on the 21st of March in the year afore- 
said, while the constable was hearing mass at the prin- 
cipal church of Jaen, a body of peasants, regardless 

69 Literally, were full of gall antipoison, — Translator. 



II.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 109 

alike of the sanctity of the place and the dignity of his 
person, ran him through the breast with numerous stabs. 
No sooner did he drop down dead than the people fell 
upon the Jews, and commenced burning and pillaging 
some of the houses in which the persons of most con- 
sideration and in highest repute for wealth among the 
natives of that kingdom 70 dwelt. The mischievous ex- 
ample thus set was soon followed by a portion of the 
rabble in several cities of Andalusia, as for instance 
Andujar, Cordova, and other places also, where the 
Jews, after being severely wounded and after suffering 
other insults in their own persons and in the persons 
of their wives, did not obtain the slightest redress of 
their grievances; for justice became deaf to their com- 
plaints, and, rather than punish the guilty, chose to let 
the wound remain open, and thus, by allowing so per- 
nicious an example as this to go unpunished, caused the 
authors of the above crimes to become more inflated 
with pride and more covetous of fresh riches, after 
having once tasted the sweets of plunder. It is cer- 
tain, too, that in the calamitous times of Henry the 
Fourth's reign there was a want of concert in every 
thing ; for the king had not sufficient power or vigour 
to keep in order the towns and people [nominally] sub- 
ject to his obedience. 71 

Although a Jew could not legally hold the office of 

70 In the time of the Aj-ab dominion in Spain, the province of An- 
dalusia contained four kingdoms : these were Jaen, Granada, Seville, 
and Cordova, and even in these days we often hear them thus spoken 
of. — Translator. 

71 See Garibay's Compendio Historial, vol. n. p, 51 '2. —Translator. 



110 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



judge, 72 still, notwithstanding the prohibition, in Henry 
the Fourth's reign this dignity was filled by several of 
the most considerable persons, who (in spite of the 
many persecutions and popular tumults raised against 
them and their property) observed the Mosaic ritual. 
In 1474 was made the assessment of the amount which 
each of the aljamas in the kingdom was to pay annually 
for service and half service to the crown of Castile. The 
assessor was a Jew, named Jacob Aben Nunez, Henry 
the Fourth's physician and chief judge: the assessment 



made upon each aljama is given below : 

The Aljamas in the diocese of mrs. 

Burgos 30.800 

Calahorra 31.100 

Palencia 54.500 

Osma 19.500 

Sigiienza 15.600 

Segovia 19.500 

Avila 39.590 

Salamanca and Ciudad Hodrigo ...12.700 

Zamora 9.600 

Leon and Astorga 31.700 

Archbishopric of Toledo 64.400 

Diocese of Plasencia 56,900 

Andalusia 59.800 



* Item or items omitted by the author™... 5.310 

Total 451.000 7 * 

72 Ordenanzas Reales, lib. vin., tit. in., leyes 4 and 14. — Translator. 

73 The sum of the items given by the author is 445.690, and not 
451.000, as he makes it to be : and as the next paragraph shows that 
there is no misprint in the figures of the latter number, I have taken 
the liberty to supply in the text the sum wanting to make up the 
deficiency. — Translator. 

74 " King Henry, it seems, increased the silver maik of 1250 mara- 



n.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



Ill 



The assessor, Jacob Aben Nunez, had a thousand of 
these maravedis for his fees, and the four hundred and 
fifty thousand that remained passed into the treasury of 
the crown, which was much exhausted by continual 
wars and popular outbreaks. Spain was then in a very 
weak state : after her commerce was destroyed, the cul- 
tivation of the soil was sufficiently attended to, but from 
the general poverty that existed, this yielded to the 
farmer rather a paltry pittance than a good income. It 
is melancholy to see so powerful a kingdom afflicted 
with the greatest poverty in the times of that unhappy 
monarch Henry the Third, 75 and reduced to such ex- 
tremities that men were obliged to part with their goods 
at scarcely remunerating prices. 

vedis, and ordered it to be raised to 2250 ; hence every real contains 
34 maravedis, and the said silver mark is now 66 reals and 6 mara- 
vedis : a maravedi was then worth a trifle more than it is at present." 
Sebastian Gonzalez de Castro, Declaracion del valor de la plata ley y 
peso de las monedas antiguas de plata ligada de Castilla y Aragon. 
Madrid, 1658. 

75 In 1406 this king issued a decree that provisions should be 
assessed, because they were becoming scarcer and scarcer every day. 
This strange document commences thus : " Forasmuch as we are 
bound to govern for the weal and benefit of our subjects and for 
the safety and preservation of our kingdoms and seigniories, we 
ordain and command that the price of wheat be fifteen maravedis 
a faneague throughout the realm in general, and eighteen at the 
court ; barley, ten ; rye, twelve old maravedis ; oats, six : a pound 
of mutton, two maravedis ; a pound of beef, one ; a pound of butter, 
four ; a pound of hog's lard, three old maravedis : hucksters must 
sell a partridge for five maravedis ; a hare for three ; a rabbit for 
two ; a fowl for four ; a pullet for two ; a fat goose for six ; a suck- 
ing-pig for eight ; a pigeon for two old maravedis : an ox, Guadiana« 
bred and born, may be sold for two hundred maravedis ; an ordinary 
ox for a hundred and eighty. \Demostracion Historica del verdadero 
valor de todas las monedas que corrian en Castilla durante el reinado del 
Sehor Don Enrique III., nota vig a cuarta. — Translator.^ 



112 



HISTORY OF 



Meanwhile, the Jews, from fear of the lower orders, 
concealed their riches, the most powerful declaring 
themselves to be only tolerably well off, while the 
middle classes said that they were in very reduced 
circumstances : they, therefore, looked upon commercial 
transactions with supreme contempt, and only traf- 
ficked in things of little value, whence scarcely any 
profit could be realized. All this arose from the 
well-founded suspicion that their reputation for wealth 
was calculated to bring upon them new persecutions 
and to excite that barbarous and covetous set of 
men to fresh disturbances. To such a pitch of misery 
were these kingdoms reduced by the alarm of the 
Jews and the care taken by them to bury their 
treasures in the bowels of the earth, that the circulation 
of gold and silver became very limited. The coin was 
all secreted in the coffers of the Hebrews, and what 
passed from hand to hand was bought at the houses 
of dealers, exchangers, or bankers : these persons were 
either converted Jews or Christians who traded with 
the money which the unconverted Jews had supplied 
them for the occasion, with the view of dividing the 
profits with them. 76 The stoppage of the traffic of the 

76 Bachelor Juan de Talverde Arrieta, in his work entitnled Bes- 
pertador que trata, &c, (Madrid, 1581), says, "Three hundred years 
before we had money from the Indies, the want of provisions and 
other things began to be felt ; money lost its value, and tariffs were 

fixed, and this occurred more than once ; and before money 

came from the Indies for the prosecution of wars in Italy, Africa, and 

Granada, which was conquered by the Catholic king there 

were ducats, half ducats, pieces of two, four, ten, and a hundred, 
doblas zahenas, Castilian florins and half florins, in such quantities, 



i»-3 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



113 



Jews caused the ruin of all the commerce that formerly- 
existed in the realms of Castile. All kinds of merchan- 
dise were reduced to the lowest figure. A yard of 
Chillon cloth was worth seventy maravedis, a yard of 
Lombai and Brussels fifty old maravedis 5 a yard of 
Ghent scarlet sixty 5 a yard of Ypres scarlet a hundred 
and ten,, the cloths of Montpelier, London, and Valen- 
cia sold at sixty old maravedis per yard. 

Everything else went on in the same way. The 
kingdom was weak : commerce was annihilated : agri- 
culture was inefficiently carried on : the Jews were very 
rich, but did not circulate their money among others: the 
people were miserable : the crown was without resources : 
Spain was disturbed by insurrections against the per- 
son of king Henry : people's minds were in a state of 
excitement produced by their present misery, while 
they looked upon this monarch's downfall as the only 
sure way of remedying all the misfortunes which so 

that the banks and exchange offices would not give reals for them 
except at a discount : there were many persons in Spain who made 
a lining by exchanging, and many wholesale dealers who had in then 
houses silver money, besides reals, quarter reals, tarjas, and other 
gold coins, which they kept in bags, and doled out by weight and 
measure : if you don't believe it, go and ask for the tradesmen's 
books at Medina del Campo, Burgos, Toledo, and other places, and 
you will find that there were many more gold and silver coins in 
those days than the present." So said Talverde, just as the scarcity 
of Spanish money began to be felt, and the importation of foreign 
coins had commenced. Sarabia de la Calle, in his Instruction de 
Mercaderes (Medina del Campo, 1544, id. 1-547), writes thus: " Though 
the escudos del sol of France, the big ducats of Genoa, and the ducats 
of the Roman chamber pass in Spain, the half-pence (parpaUolas) of 
France, the picholes Gf Genoa, and the quatrins of Rome are of no 
value whatever." 

I 



114 HISTORY or [be. 

grievously afflicted them. These evils originated in the 
rash methods employed, against all reason and justice, 
by monarchs and people for the conversion of the 
numerous Jews who dwelt in these lands. They were 
forbidden to practise medicine and surgery, to keep 
their houses open for traffic with Christians, and. finally, 
to dispose of their goods and persons in the way that 
was most conducive to their own interests and to the 
increase of their substance. The Christians reaped the 
fruits of this barbarous policy during king Henry the 
Fourth's unhappy reign over Castile : for to this policy 
must be ascribed the abandonment of commerce by the 
Jews who were the only. or. at any rate, the principal 
persons engaged in it, and who kept it alive : and, as 
its destruction arose from the cause I have mentioned, 
the ruin of agriculture followed in its rear, and the 
kingdom, being destitute of the two principal nerves 
which keep the body of a state together, was ulti- 
mately reduced to the greatest weakness and distress. 



11,.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



115 



SUMMARY OF BOOK THE THIRD. 

Commencement of the reign of the Catholic Sovereigns. — Character 
of Ferdinand the Fifth. — Eulogium on Queen Isabella. — First In- 
quisitors appointed for the punishment of converted Jews that 
Judaized. — Conspiracy of these persons at Seville. — Punishment 
inflicted upon many of them. — Pedro Fernandez de Alcaudete, 
treasurer of the cathedral of Cordova, burnt to death. — Establish- 
ment of the Inquisition. — Great assistance rendered by the Jews 
to the Catholic Sovereigns in their enterprise against Granada. — - 
Decree for the expulsion of the unconverted Jews. — Presents 
offered by them to King Ferdinand for permission to remain in 
Spain. — The king, influenced by these, is anxious to revoke the 
decree. — Is prevented from doing so by the boldness of Torque - 
mada. — The Jews quit Spain, and go to foreign kingdoms. — Some 
notices of their chequered fortunes in them. — Inquiry into the 
calamities which the Catholic Sovereigns brought upon Spain hy 
expelling the Jews and persecuting the converts. — Bad policy of 
these monarchs censured. 

BOOK THE THIRD, 

After the death of Henry the Fourth, who left the 
kingdoms of Castile and Leon in so prostrate a con 
dition and reduced to such extreme distress, his sister 
Isabella maintained her seat . on the throne, in spite of 
the pretensions of Juana la Beltraneja, 1 who was, or, 

1 Though acknowledged as his daughter by King Henry, she was 
supposed to be the child of Beltran de J a Cueva, whence the name 
Beltraneja. — Translator. 



116 HISTORY OF [BK. 

at least, was said to be, the daughter of the deceased 
monarch, and who was married to the king of Portugal, 
who, by means of a powerful army, endeavoured to 
support in the field his claim to the sovereignty of 
these lands. Isabella, wife of prince Ferdinand of 
Aragon (the monarch in whose person the crowns 
of this latter realm and Castile were first united), 
was in a great measure enabled to overcome the king 
of Portugal's opposition to her consort's claims, and, 
accordingly, continued, with greater security than be- 
fore, to sway the sceptre of the vast monarchy. 2 

King Ferdinand was, in the opinion of Antonio de 
Herrera, 3 a man of excellent wisdom, and had he fid- 
filled his promises, there would have been nothing re- 
prehensible in his conduct. Others accuse him of being 
unfaithful in every transaction of life to the pledge he 
had given to his partisans, except when it suited his 
own convenience to keep it. They likewise charge him 
with insatiable ambition and unbounded avarice, and of 
allowing those vices to get the entire dominion over 
him. 4 Fray Prudencio de Sandoval, bishop of Pam- 
plona, asserts that this king had long since thrown his 
confessor overboard, as a troublesome merchant, telling 
the latter that he was more influenced in coming by 

2 See Zurita's account of the war between Ferdinand the Fifth 
and Alonso king of Portugal, Anales de Aragon, latter half of book 
xix. and first half of book xx. — Translator. 

3 Comentarios de los hechos de los Espanoles, Franceses, y Vene- 
cianos y otros capitanes famosos en Italia, Madrid, 1624. 

4 Anales de Aragon por Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola, Zara- 
goza, 1630. 



III.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN, 117 

motives of personal interest than regard for his (the 
king's conscience* Finally, that well-known politician 
Niccolo Machiavelli, citizen and secretary of Florence, 
said. " That Ferdinand the Fifth might be looked upon 
as a new prince, inasmuch as he. from having been the 
mere king of a petty state, had. owing to his great 
reputation and glory, become the king of Christendom. 
No sooner did he ascend the throne than he turned his 
arms against the kingdom of Granada — an enterprise 
which was the foundation of his greatness ; for the 
minds of the Castilian grandees, diverted by constant 
warfare from attending to political changes, did nor 
observe that the king was daily increasing his au- 
thority at their expense, and supporting, with the 
fortunes of the people and the Church, those armies 
which were extending his power. Afterwards, with 
the view of attempting still greater undertakings, he 
artfully concealed his design under the mask of re- 
ligion, and, by means of a cruel piety, drove the Moors 
out of his dominions, a stroke of policy truly deplorable 
and unexampled." 6 All the translators of Machiavelli/ s 

5 Historia del Emperador Carlos V,, primera parte, Valladolid, 
1604. [Lib. i. cap. 50.— Translator.] 

D Principe di Xiccolo Machiavelli cittadirio e secretario Fioren- 
tirio, Capitolo xxi. " Xoi abbiarno nei nostri tempi Eerrando cTAra- 
gona, presenti re di Spagna. Costui si puo chiamare quasi principe 
nuovo. perche d' tin re debole e diventato per fama e per gloria il 
primo Rei dei Christiani : e si considerete le azioni sue, le troverete 
tutte grandissime e qualcuna stracidinaria : Egli nel principio del 
suo regno assalto la Granata, e quclla impresa fd il fondamento 
dello stato suo. In prima ei la fece ozioso e senza sospetto di 
esseie impedito ; terme occupati in quelia gli anirni de 4 Baroni di 



118 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



works are agreed that this famous politician alluded to 
Ferdinand the Fifth, when he said, " There now reigns 
a prince, whose name it is not expedient that I should 
declare, from whose mouth one hears nothing else but 
praises of peace and good faith, but had his actions 
corresponded to his words, he would, more than once 
ere this, have lost either his reputation or his do- 
minions." 7 

If we adopt the opinion formed of Ferdinand the 
Fifth by his contemporary, who, next to Cornelius 
Tacitus, was the first of master politicians in the art 
of government ; if we take into consideration the un- 
worthy acts perpetrated by this king to the prejudice 
of the people of Spain, among which we must class the 
marriage which (after the death of his wife Isabella) he 
solemnized with Queen Germaine, in hopes of leaving 
a succession by her, now that the crowns of Castile and 
Arragon were united, we shall perceive that this mo- 
narch was not so great a personage as some individuals 
have asserted (in opposition to all reason and justice), 

Castiglia,' i quali pensando a quella guerra, non pensavano ad in- 
novare ; e lui acquistava in questo mezzo riputazioni, ed imperio 
sopra di loro, che non se ne accorgevanno. Pote nutrire con danari 
della Chiesa e de popoli gli esserciti e fare un fondamento con quella 
guerra lunga alia milizia sua : la quale lo ha dipoi onorato. Oltre di 
questo per potere intrapendere maggiori imprese, servendosi sempre 
. della religione, se volse a una pietosa crudelta, cacciando e spogliando 
il suo regno de ' Marram,' ne puo essere questo esempio piu mirabile 
ne piu raro." 

7 Capitolo xytii., " Alcuno principe dei presenti tempi, quale non 
e bene nominare, non predica mai altro che pace e fede, e dell' una 
e dell' altra e inimicissimo, e 1' una e 1' altra quando e V avesse osser- 
vata, gli arebbe piu yolte tolto o la riputazioni o lp stato." 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



119 



relying on the accounts of writers influenced by fear 
and the desire of flattering him. 

It cannot, however, be doubted that many events of 
importance to the prosperity of Spain occurred in his 
reign; and yet the glory of them belongs not to Mm, 
but to the wisdom and virtues of his first wife, Queen 
Isabella; she was an illustrious matron, worthy to have 
lived in an a^e in which barbarous fanaticism — that 
secret foe to God, to the cultivation of the intellects, 
and to the happiness of mankind, did not influence the 
greater part of the human race. 

Queen Isabella went down to Andalusia in July 1477, 
with Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, Grand Cardinal of 
Spain and Archbishop of Seville, while Ferdinand was 
using the greatest expedition in fortifying the castles 
and towns situated on the borders of Portugal. To this 
he was compelled by the continuance of the war with 
king Alonso, pretender to the crown of Castile, in right 
of his wife La Beltraneja. 8 

In the mean time, Isabella was busily engaged in 
establishing the order of the holy brotherhood, which 
was founded with the sole object of extirpating male- 
factors out of the uncultivated lands which harboured 
them. 9 Fray Alonso de Ojeda, prior of the convent of 

8 Zuniga, Anales de Sevill-a, p. 380, 381, see also note ( 2 ) p. 116. — 
Translator . 

9 Anales de Aragon, por Zurita, lib. xx. cap. 21, vol. it. fol. 294. 
" Ferd. and Isab. organized the Hermandad ostensibly, as a mounted 
brotherhood, or gendarmerie, to protect the roads, but, in reality, as 
the germ of a standing army to be employed in beating down their 
too independent aristocracy." Ford's Handbook of Spain, vol. I, 
p. 313, Murray, 1845. — Translator. 



120 HISTORY OF [BK; 

dominican friars at Seville, observing the zeal of the 
Queen for the public good, represented to her the in- 
jury done to the Christian religion by the wicked lives 
of the Jewish converts ; 10 and, accordingly, to remedy 
this evil, he urgently entreated her, in eloquent and 
forcible language, to grant the friars of his order per- 
mission to inquire into the crime of heresy — a privilege 
enjoyed by the friars of the same order in the kingdom 
of Aragon, of whom certain persons were nominated 
to the like commission, sometimes immediately by the 
pope, and sometimes by his vicegerents or provincials* 
Fray Alonso de Ojeda ? s importunities were backed by 
those of many persons of great virtue and in exalted 
situations ; and Isabella was compelled to dictate a mea- 
sure strong enough to weaken, if not destroy, the ob- 
stacles to the increase of the faith caused bv Jews not 
really converted; she was, however, a woman of too 
generous a mind to be capable of deciding at once to 
give her consent to so flagrant an oppression of her 
subjects. 11 And, therefore, they were unable to extort 
more from her by their solicitations (although supported 
by the above arguments) than a recommendation to the 
priests, and particularly to the dominican friars, to show 
themselves energetic and faithful preachers, and to bring 
over [if possible] to the Christian religion those who, to 
their own misfortune, were wandering astray and living 
far from the light of truth which was necessary to the 

10 Llorente, Historic. Crttica de la Inquisition, cap. v. art. n. sect. 3, 
Translator. 

11 Llorente, cap, t. art. it. sects. 3, 5, 6, 7 3 8, 11. 18.— Translator. 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



121 



salvation of their souls. Cardinal Pedro Gomez de 
Mendoza prepared a catechism for their instruction, 
and likewise framed some laws for the correction of 
all who refused conformity with the teaching of the 
gospel. 12 

But as it was afterwards discovered in the following 
year, 1478, that sundry Jews had met together on Holy 
Thursday night to Judaize, and that, after they had blas- 
phemed Jesus Christ and His religion, and been appre- 
hended for so doing, they had, on exhibiting proofs of 
repentance, been reconciled ; new and urgent solicita- 
tions were made to the catholic king to establish in these 
realms the tribunal of the inquisition after the model of 
that established in Sicily. 13 This arose not so much from 
devotion as from the covetous desire of getting into his 
hands the great wealth, 14 of which the principal Jewish 
converts were then possessed ; for, according to the 
ordinances of the tribunal founded in Sicily, one-third 
of the estates of heretics, on which an embargo had 
been laid prior to their confiscation, went into the 
pockets of the inquisitors. 

By this means robberies were perpetrated with im- 
punity ; for as it was the interest of the judges that the 

12 Zuniga, p. 386, column 1 ; Llorente, cap. v. art. it. sects. 14, 15, 
17. — Translate. 

13 See Zuniga, p. 386, col. 2 ; Llorente, cap. y. art. n. sec. 12. — 
Translator. 

14 That impudent fellow Zurita says that the funds raised by the 
confiscations, which went into the Royal treasury, were (after defray- 
ing the salaries of the inquisitors and ministers of the holy office, and 
providing food for poor criminals) exclusively applied to religious pur- 
poses ! Anales de Aragon, lib. xx. cap. 49,yo1. iy. fol. 324. — Translator. 



122 HISTORY OF [BK. 

accused should appear, in the eyes of the world, guilty 
of all heresies that ever existed, in order that they 
might make a prize of one-third of his estate, what 
rich man could expect mercy at the hands of those 
who looked upon his death or dishonour as the means 
of obtaining so pretty a picking, without incurring the 
slightest hazard in getting it ? 

King Ferdinand had, by his frequent military ex- 
peditions, exhausted his treasury and burdened his sub- 
jects with taxes, and, after selling a considerable portion 
of the church plate, called upon the regular clergy to 
pay him contributions to which they had not been 
accustomed, and which were, on that account, borne 
with greater reluctance ; he also wearied the secular 
clergy with loans that he could never expect to repay 
out of his royal treasury, on which there were so many 
claims as yet unpaid ; and as he now lost all hopes of 
replenishing it, and became perplexed at his inability 
to extricate himself from present troubles and to avoid 
future difficulties, while engaged in carrying on such 
long wars against the enemies to his crown, he looked 
to the Inquisition as the sole means of augmenting the 
royal revenue. This was the true reason why Fer- 
dinand consented to what the dominican friars had, 
under the influence of their cupidity, so repeatedly 
and so urgently implored him to grant. He was one 
of the greatest politicians of his age, and one who 
travelled to his end without re^ardin^ the means em- 
ployed in its attainment. 

In the same year, 1478, while the Catholic Sovereigns 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPALN. 



123 



were at Seville, they received intelligence that the pope 
had issued his Bull and given his consent to the founda- 
tion of the so-much-desired tribunal of the Inquisition. 
But the Queen, who in all matters of business acted on 
the advice of the learned cardinal Mendoza, 10 opposed 
her husband's wishes, 16 rightly judging that if, evils 
arose from the converts being allowed to live in the 
enjoyment of their liberty, and from their being 
exempted from molestation by persons who, under 
colour of inquiring into their morals, words, and even 
thoughts, might persecute them, far greater disasters 
must and would arise from the cupidity of judges 
desirous of finding them guilty, for the sake of en- 
riching themselves with the estates of such as should 
have the dreadful misfortune to fall into their hands. 
And so, to pacify as well those who were exasperated 
at the excess of liberty allowed to the Jews, as the new 
Christians and those who contumaciously adhered to the 
Jewish law, she decreed, in the Cortes assembled at 
Toledo in 1480, that all observers of the Mosaic law 
should live apart from Christians, and wear the badges 

15 Like all other women, Queen Isabella had a will of her own, 
When cardinal Mendoza was on his death-bed, she and her husband 
went to visit and console him. Mendoza, however, availing himself 
of an occasion when Ferdinand had gone out of the room, charged 
Isabella in the most solemn manner, to cultivate a good understand- 
ing with the house of France, and also to marry her son John to 
Juana la Beltraneja; both of which proposals were anything but 
acceptable to her ; and she, declaring that the cardinal had taken 
leave of his senses, abruptly rose up and took her departure. Zurita, 
Historia del Bey Don Hernando, lib. u. cap. 4. — Translator. 

16 Llorente, cap. v. art. i. sect. 14; art. n. sects. 7. 8, 9. — Trans- 
lator. 



124 history or [bk. 

appointed by the ancient laws and ordinances. This 
shows that the mandates of former sovereigns had be- 
come a dead letter. It was likewise enacted that the 
unbaptized Jews should retire to their quarters at night- 
fall, and suspend their commercial dealings till daylight. 
This 4s a clear proof that, in those times, the law which 
prohibited the Jews from making acquisitions, gains, 
bargains, and contracts with Christians, had fallen into 
abeyance. At last Queen Isabella, whose compassionate 
and benevolent heart had prevented her from consent- 
ing to the erection of the barbarous tribunal, was over- 
come by the solicitations of her avaricious husband and 
the dominican fraternity, who swallowed the bait of 
interest and scented the blood of those Jewish con- 
verts who had the greatest reputation for wealth, be- 
fore they saw the hour approach in which, invested 
with the king's authority, they were to make prizes 
of the possessions belonging to so many unhappy be- 
ings, whose misfortune it was to be born in that calami- 
tous age. 17 

In the year 1480, the Monarchs Ferdinand and 
Isabella appointed as Inquisitors Fray Miguel de Morillo 
and the presentee 1S Fray San Martin, and as Assessor 
priest Juan Ruiz de Medina, Doctor in Canon law. 

17 Llorente, cap. y. art. u. sects. 17, IS, 19. It Trill be worth the 
reader's while, I think, to peruse the whole of the fifth chapter. — 
Translator. 

18 In the original, yreserdado, which Seoane defines thus, " a teacher 
of divinity who expects soon to be ranked as a master." See his 
dictionary. Perhaps, the expression answers to what, in Cambridge, 
we should call an inceptor. — ■ Translator. 



111.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 125 

The persons elected were ordered to commence the 
exercise of their functions in the arch-diocese of Seville 
and in the diocese of Cadiz, where their zeal was re- 
quired to bring those Jews back to the Christian faith, 
who were formerly converted and had now gone astray 
from the path of truth. These judges received letters 
from the Catholic Sovereigns which were to serve as 
their credentials to the civil authorities of the towns 
and cities, who were to provide them with lodgings. 
The letter addressed to the Council of Seville com- 
menced thus : — 

" Be it known unto you that We, observing that in 
our realms and seigniories there have been and still 
are some wicked Christians, apostates, heretics, and 
converts, who, after having received baptism and 
borne the name of Christians, have turned and do 
now turn back to the sect and superstition and 
perfidy of the Jews, &c. Willing and desiring to 
provide against this, and to check the evil and 
mischief from spreading farther, in case the afore- 
said offences be not punished, &c, we have entreated 
our Right Reverend Father to provide a wholesome 
remedy for these things, and His Holiness hath 
consented to the prayer of our petition, and granted 
us a faculty which authorizes us to elect, and we 
have elected, two or three persons with defined powers, 
to act as Inquisitors, and to proceed, according to 
this apostolical authority, against the said infidels and 
wicked Christians, and all who countenance and 
receive them, and to prosecute and punish them as 



126 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



far as they are, by right of custom, entitled to 
prosecute and punish them. By virtue of the said 
faculty conceded to and accepted by us, and in the 
exercise of the same, we elect, nominate, and depute, 
as inquisitors into the said infidelity, apostacy, and 
heresy, the venerable and devout fathers, Fray 
Miguel de Morillo, Doctor of Divinity, and Fray 
Juan de San Martin, presented 19 Bachelor of Di- 
vinity, and Prior of the Monastery of St. Paul, of 
the preaching order, in the city of Seville. 20 
The Inquisitors did not go down to Seville to carry 
out these instructions till the year 1481, 21 owing to the 
various difficulties which they had to overcome : these 
were, in all probability, such as men usually experience, 
when any change is about to be introduced. An ac- 
count of the entry of these judges into Seville, and of 
the plot devised by the Jews for the destruction of the 
former, is given in a manuscript of the day, written by 
an unknown author. As the notices contained in it are 
very curious, it will not be out of the way to copy some 
passages from it, which will stamp additional authority 
upon my history. " As soon as the Inquisitors and 
ministers of the holy Office entered Seville, the city 
was divided into factions which took different views of 
the case, some sided with the Inquisitors, some against 
them. TJiat which caused the greatest scandal and 
astonishment was the fact that this opinion affected 



19 See note ( 1S ) page 124. — Translator. 
80 Zuriiga, pp. 388, and 389. — Translator. 
21 Zuniga, p. 389.— Translator. 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



127 



many men in power, and persons holding offices and 
dignities, inasmuch as they favoured its most obnoxious 
maintainers. 

" The nobility and prebendaries declared in favour 
of the holy faith of Jesus Christ and His ministers : 
some persons went a league's distance out of the city 
to receive them, others proceeded as far as Carmona, 22 
refreshed, entertained them, and paid them frequent 
visits. 

" The Inquisitors proceeded to the Chapter-House 
of the Holy Church, where they presented and ex- 
hibited the Bulls and royal warrants, and then went 
out to the door of the Chapter-House, where they 
found the municipal body ready to receive them, and 
were conducted by them from the steps," [outside of 
the Cathedral], 23 " to the Guildhall, and were put into 
seats at the Guildhall and entertained by the Corpo- 
ration. Then the prebendaries and aldermen (regidores) 
of the respective corporate bodies met together, and 
decreed that there should be a procession of the clergy 
and people on the following Sunday : and the proces- 
sion took place with much solemnity, and the Inquisition 
was accepted by the people.' 

" Meanwhile a meeting took place between the fol- 
lowing persons, viz. Suson, father of Susana, known by 
the name of the beautiful female ; Benadeva, father of 

22 Carmona is six leagues from Seville. — Translator. 

23 There are nights of steps on three sides of this Cathedral, with 
a terrace of considerable width at the top of them. I think the 
ancient Chapter-house stood on this terrace.— Translator. 



128 HISTORY OF TBK. 

the Canon ; Abaiofia the odoriferous, who held the 
customs of the king and queen in pawn ; Aleman, a 
person of low birth, and one of the numerous cadets 

of the same name , the Adalfes of Triana, 2i who 

still lived in the castle , Cristobal Lopez Mon- 

dadura of San Salvador, and many other rich and 
influential persons, who attended the meeting, and 
lived in the towns of Utrera 25 and Carmona. 

" What think ye, said these men, of those fellows 
who are coming against us ? Are not we the persons of 
most consideration for our wealth in this city ? Let us 
have a rising. You man here, bring so many of your 
men, and you man yonder, bring together as many as 
you can j and then they began to distribute among 
the ringleaders, arms, men, money, and whatever else 
appeared necessary. And if, said they, they come to 
arrest us, we will gain the people over to our side, and 
raise a tumult, and, by this means, put our aggressors 
to death and take vengeance upon our enemies. Then 
said a venerable old Jew, who was present, ( My sons,, 
I think the people are ready, so he my life, hut what ! 
where are the hearts ? Give me hearts? 55 

This conspiracy came to the knowledge of the Inqui- 
sitors, who immediately began to imprison all who were 
concerned in it, and even many who had nothing what- 
ever to do with it. While they were getting up their 
cases, all nature seemed to shudder at the contemplation 

84 Triana is a suburb of Seville, on the opposite bank of the Gua- 
dalquivir. — Translator. 

25 Utrera lies between Seville and Jerez : it is four leagues distant 
froni the former city. — Translator, 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



129 



of the erection of a tribunal, so barbarous and so 
inimical to the human race. Andres Bernaldez or 
Bernal, a writer of the day, and chaplain to one of 
the Inquisitors, speaks of the dreadful tempest which 
burst upon all the cities of Andalusia. " This fourteen 
hundred and eighty-first year, at the commencement of 
Christmas and afterwards, there fell so much rain and 
there rose such high floods that the Guadalquivir car- 
ried away and destroyed a part of El Copero, which 
contained eighty dwellings, and many other places on 
the bank, and the swollen waters rose near the rampart 
turret of Seville, by the ravine of Coria, to a greater 
height than they had ever been known to rise, and did 
not subside for three days, and it was feared that the 
city would be destroyed by the waters. At this time 
also a dreadful plague broke out, which ravaged these 
lands till the year 1488, with great obstinacy and 
severity : more than fifteen thousand persons died at 
Seville, and as many at Cordova; and at Jerez and 
Eeija upwards of eight or nine thousand persons, and 
this was the case in all the other towns and villages. 5 ' 21 

With such a festive entertainment did nature hail 
the institution of the Holy Office ! On the one hand 
the Guadalquivir overflowed its banks, carrying in its 
course houses, trees, human beings, and cattle, while 
on the other, the plague spread desolation in the cities, 

86 History of the Catholic Sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, m.s. 
cap. xliy, [A considerable part of El Copero -which had escaped 
destruction in the year 1481, was (according to the same writer, 
quoted by Zuhiga in his Anales de SeriHa,) swept away by the 
swollen waters of the Guadalquivir in 1485.— Tramlatov,} 

K 



130 



HISTORY OF 



cutting the thread of many lives with the greatest 
rapidity. With these dreadful calamities before their 
eyes, these more than brutal judges of the Inquisition 
began to imprison and devise punishments for those 
who (having been baptized to save their lives and 
fortunes from the cupidity and hatred of the rabble, 
who had been instigated by certain wicked ecclesiastics 
or avaricious friars to destroy the Jews,) still observed 
the Mosaic law, though they did so with the greatest 
secrecy. Those first Inquisitors,' 3 says Bernaldez, 
"had the burning-place 27 at Tablada prepared, together 
with those plaister figures of the four prophets, and 
in a very few days they found many ways of dis- 
covering those who were guilty of heresy, and com- 
menced laying hands on the most culpable of both 
sexes, of whom several were found amongst the highest 
ranks, the veinticuatros, 28 the jurats, the bachelors of 
the universities, the lawyers, and men in greatest repute, 
whom they began sentencing to be burnt with fire. 
The first time they brought six men and women to be 
burnt, and saw due execution done upon them. 29 Fray 

27 " On the flat plain outside the walls " (of Seville), " called El 
Prado de San Sebastian, was the Quemadero or burning place of the 
Inquisition : here the last act of the tragedy of the auto de fe was 
performed by the civil power, on whom the odium was cast, while 
the populace, in the words of Caesar, ' sceleris obliti de pgena dissere- 
bant.' The spot of fire is marked by the foundations of a square 
platform on which the faggots were piled." Ford's Hand-book of 
Spain, vol. i. page 278. Murray, 1845. — Translator. 

28 Veinticuatros were certain magistrates of towns in Andalusia, 
so called because their number consisted of twenty-four, — Translator. 

29 In this very brasier of Seville, which, according to Bernaldez, 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN, 



131 



Alsonso Hojeda de San Pablo, a zealot for the faith, 
in Jesus Christ, the most active person in Seville in 
bringing about this Inquisition, preached the sermon. 
A few days after this they burnt three of the principal 
and richest persons in the city : these were Diego de 
Suson who was reported to be worth ten millions : he 
was a great Rabbi, and appears to have died a Chris- 
tian, 30 the second was Manuel Sauli, and the other 
Bartolome Torralba. They also took Pedro Fernandez 
Benedeba, steward of the church for the dean and 
chapter (one of the most considerable of that body, 
who had arms in his house sufficient to arm a hundred 
men,) and Juan Fernandez Abalasia, who had been 
a magistrate for some time, and was a great lawyer, 
and many other persons of great wealth and consider- 

was first employed in the year 1481 in the execution of six men and 
women for the crime of Judaizing, the Inquisition burnt its last 
victim, a woman condemned for Molinism, in 1782. La Inquisition 
sin mascara by Natanael Jomtob (Don Antonio Puigblanch), Cadiz, 
1811. Alonso de Fuentes in his Cuarenta cantos de diver sas y pere- 
grinas historias (Seville, 1545), says that the person who built the 
burning-place was himself /the first to make trial of it and suf- 
fered the torture of its flames for Judaizing. This dreadful witness 
of human ferocity was destroyed in the year 1809, when Bonaparte's 
troops went down to Andalusia and its materials were employed in 
the erection of various fortifications at the gates of Seville. [The 
author has taken a few other passages from Puigblanch, whose work 
has been translated by Walton, portions of whose version I have not 
hesitated to adopt where I preferred it to my own. — Translator.'] 

80 1$ is not true that Suson or Susan was converted to the faith at 
the last hour of his life. The anonymous' writer of Seville, whose 
manuscript I have cited, says, that when the people were leading 
Suson to the flames, the rope was drawn too tight, and as he set up 
for a wit, he said to a bystander, " Lift up this Tunisian hoed forme." 

K2 



132 HISTORY OF [BK. 

- 

ation, whom they likewise burnt, and whose wealth 
could not shield them. On this all the converts took 
alarm, and fled in great terror from the city and arch- 
diocese. And they placed them in Seville, and forbad 
them to depart from it on pain of death. And they set 
guards at the gates of the city, [and apprehended so 
many that they were at a loss where to put them]. 31 
Still many of them contrived to flee to the lands of 
their masters, and into Portugal and into the territory 

of the Moors I have no desire, at present, to 

write any thing more about the mischief caused by this 
wicked heresy, and shall content myself with saying 
that as this fire is now kindled, so shall it continue to 
burn until it reach the end of the dry wood, which 
must blaze until the Judaizers be consumed, so that 
not one of them, nor even one of their children of 
twenty years old and upwards may remain alive, if 
infected with the same leprosy, even though less dis- 
eased with it than their parents.'* With such ardent 
and such brutal zeal did the clergyman Andres Bernal- 
dez write in praise of the Inquisition ! And while the 
judges of this tribunal thus insolently and arrogantly 
strutted about Seville, the neighbouring city of Cor- 
dova had already been the scene of acts of the utmost 
severity. 

One of the first persons reduced to ashes for the crime 

81 The words in brackets are not given in the author's text, but 
I have inserted them, as I find them in a note of his a few pages 
further on, and think they will make what follows clearer than it 

would otherwise be,— Translator. 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



133 



of Judaizing 32 was Pedro Fernandez de Alcaudete, 
treasurer of that church. The discovery of his guilt 
is vulgarly reported to have been attended with a 
thousand marvellous particulars, such, for example, as 
the following : In the year 1483, when the procession 
took place on Holy Thursday, 33 at the time of placing 
the Most Holy 34 on the monument 35 of the Cathedral 
of Cordova, some persons observed that from one of the 
treasurer's shoes blood was issuing so profusely, that 
his foot was quite bathed in it. It seems that several 
people informed him of this strange occurrence, and 
that he was much troubled at the information, and, 
owing to the state of alarm he was in, could not utter 
a word. The Canons met him in the chapel of Acacio 
(ever since that time called the chapel of blood), and on 
pulling off his shoes, they found concealed in one of 
them the sacred form, which he should have consumed 
at the general communion, which had been that day 

w Coleccion de los autos generales y particulares de fe celebrados 
por el tribunal de la ciudad de Cordoba, anotados y dados a luz por 
el Licenciado Gaspar Matute y Luquin (el docto filologo Don Luis 
Maria Ramirez y las Casas-Deza) Cordoba, 1839. 

83 The festival commemorated by this name in the Spanish Church 
is not Ascension day, which we sometimes call Holy Thursday, but the 
Thursday in Passion week. — Translator, 

34 That is to say the consecrated wafer. — Translator. 

85 Monuments are wooden structures, placed in Spanish Cathedrals, 
on the Thursday in Passion week ; that of Seville is the finest, it 
reaches to within a few feet of the roof, and is divided into several 
compartments (perhaps I might say stories), on each of which colos- 
sal figures are placed to represent scenes connected with our Saviour's 
Passion, &c. When lighted up at night, these monuments present 
a most brilliant and gorgeous appearance. — Translator, 



134 HISTORY OF [BK. 

administered. But this is altogether fabulous. The 
imprisonment of the treasurer resulted from the trial of 
a mistress living with him, upon whom punishment had 
been inflicted : on being accused of Judaizing, this 
woman at first denied, but afterwards acknowledged 
her guilt, and concluded by saying that Pedro Fernan- 
dez de Alcaudete, her paramour, in spite of his dignity 
of treasurer to the Cathedral, and of the Christian life 
he apparently led, was, like herself, an observer of 
the Mosaic law. When the Inquisitors went to take 
Alcaudete, he made an armed resistance, in which he 
was assisted by his servants, who killed the chief Algua- 
zil of the Holy Office, who had made the best fight 
to clear a passage for himself ; but in the end the serv- 
ants were put to flight, and then the ministers laid hold 
of the treasurer, and after securing his person, took him 
to the prisons of the Inquisition, giving him occasional 
pushes as well as blows with the backs of their swords 
on his way thither ; and into these prisons was he cast 
till Saturday the 28th of February, 1484. 

On this day he was brought out to the public act, 
degraded from his orders, stripped of his ecclesiastical 
habits, and left with a cloth coat upon him: he was 
then handed over to the secular arm and condemned to 
be burnt alive. A yellow aljuba™ with long sleeves to 
it, was then put upon him, also a head-dress in the 
shape of a long cap (or mitre) terminating with a 

36 The dictionary of the Royal Spanish. Academy informs us that 
the aljuba was a Moorish garment worn by Spanish Christians and 
Moors, but does not describe it ; neither does Seoane. — Translator. 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



135 



coloured tassel, and lastly a label, bearing in large 
letters, the inscription 

THIS FELLOW HATH JUDAIZED. 

In this fashion, riding on a donkey, was he con- 
ducted to the site appointed for the burning-place, 
where the sentence was carried into execution. 

These and other instances of punishments inflicted 
by the Inquisition spread terror over the whole of 
Andalusia — so much so, that the people fled to foreign 
countries from well-founded fear of the brutal and 
inhuman acts that were perpetrated, without the slight- 
est opposition, by the judges of the tribunal called holy, 
Hernan Perez del Pulgar, chronicler to the Catholic 
Sovereigns, in his account of the calamities which at- 
tended the establishment of the Inquisition in Spain, 
speaks thus : " at this period, in the cities and towns of 
Andalusia, and especially in Seville and Cordova, there 
were found to be four thousand houses and upwards, in 
which many persons of that race 99 (the Jewish) u dwelt ; 
who, with their wives and children, withdrew them- 
selves from the land. And although a large portion of 
that territory was depopulated by the removal of these 
people, and although it was notified to the Queen that 
trade was on the decline ; yet did she, lightly regarding 
the diminution of her revenues in comparison with the 
advantage gained by the purification of her territories, 
declare that, postponing all question of interest, she was 
determined to purge the country from that sin of heresy, 
believing that act of hers to be a service rendered to God 
and herself 99 37 

37 Parte 2 3 , cap, lxxxvii., fol. 137 .—Translator. 



136 HISTORY OF [BK. 

To what excess have our historians carried their 
flattery of royal personages ! The learned Hernan 
Perez del Pulgar asserts that the Catholic Queen did 
not regard [the destruction of commerce and trade, 
nor that of her own revenues, provided she could 
root out the bad seed of those Christians in name 
but Jews in heart, that had been sown in her realms. 
It cannot be doubted that with the establishment of 
the Holy Tribunal the ruin of trade commenced, and 
though by its destruction the income of the crown 
began to diminish, this was trebled by the confiscated 
goods of so many wealthy persons. Suson alone was 
worth ten millions, probably of maravedis. In con- 
sequence of this, the hapless Jews fled from the In- 
quisitors (those robbers in towns), and abandoned the ■ 
cities, to save their lives and properties in foreign king- 
doms from the voracity of those wolves. 38 Other un- 
fortunate converts went to Rome to complain of the evil 
proceedings of the ministers of the Holy Office. Pope 
Sixtus the Fourth, dispatched a brief, dated the 29th of 
January, 1481, 39 to Ferdinand and Isabella, Sovereigns 
of Spain, for the purpose of setting before their eyes 
the numerous complaints which had come to Rome 
respecting the first judges of the Inquisition at Seville, 

35 " On this, all the converts took alarm, and fled in great terror 
from the city and archdiocese. And they placed them in Seville, 
and forbad them to depart from it on pain of death. And they set 
guards at the gates of the city, and apprehended so many that they 
were at a loss where to put them." Andres Bernaldez. 

89 Don Juan Antonio Llorente. Historia critica de la Xnquisicioiu 
Piezas justincatiyas, No. 1, 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



137 



for persecuting a multitude of persons who were thorough 
Catholics — for tormenting them with great cruelty — for 
declaring them heretics, with the view of condemning 
them to death, in order to get possession of their 
estates — and, in short, for passing sentence on them 
in so barbarous a manner as to force the people to 
flee away in terror to foreign lands, to which they 
looked for the safety of their lives. He concludes the 
brief by saying that the Inquisitors Morillo and San 
Martin deserved signal punishment and forfeiture of 
office, and that he was restrained, solely by respect for 
the authority of the Catholic Sovereigns, from taking 
the necessary measures for giving satisfaction to the mul- 
tudes of persons aggrieved by the proceedings of such 
avaricious and unprincipled judges. 

As a striking proof of the public opinion, that, in 
establishing the Inquisition, the Catholic Sovereigns 
had no other object than the replenishment of their 
exhausted coffers with the confiscations of the goods 
belonging to heretics, I shall copy a portion of the brief 
which the same Sixtus the Fourth issued on the 23rd of 
January, 1483, in reply to a letter from Queen Isabella, 
in which this lady asked to have the form and plan of 
conducting and directing the Inquisition settled for her 
at Rome, in order more effectually to increase the fruits 
to be reaped from the erection of this tribunal. The 
following words which we read in the afore-mentioned 
document are worthy of close attention : — 

" Thou seemst to doubt whether We, on seeing 

the care thou employest in punishing with severity 



138 



HISTORY OF 



the perfidious persons who, in the guise of Christians, 
blaspheme Christ, crucify Him with their Jewish 
infidelity, and obstinately persevere in their apostasy, 
shall think that thou doest it more from ambition and 
desire of icorldly gain than from zeal for the faith and 
Catholic truth or fear of God ; but thou mayest rest 
satisfied that we have never entertained the slightest 
suspicion of this: for, though certain individuals have 
whispered some things to cover the iniquities of the 
persons who have been punished, tee have never been 
able to believe that any injustice hath been committed by 
thee or thy illustrious consort, our dearly beloved son. 
We know your sincerity, piety, and devotion towards 
God. We do not believe every spirit ; and although 
we listen to the complaints of all, ice do not, there- 
fore, attach credit to them" 40 
But there never was a time when the truth was not 
corrupted by historians, who are sometimes led away by 

40 Llorente. — Historia critica de la Inquisicion. — Piezas justih- 
cativas, No. 3. " Quod auteni dubitare videris nos forsan existimare, 
cum in perhdos illos qui Christianum nomen ementiti, Christum 
blaspheniant et Judaica perndia crucifigunt. quando ad unitatem 
redigi nequeant, tarn severe animadvertere cures, ambitione potius et 
bonorum temporalium cupiditate quam zelo fidei et eatholicge veri- 
tatis yel Dei tirnore, certo scias ne ullam quidem apud nos ejus jei 
fuisse suspicionem. Quod si non defuerint qui ad protegendum 
eorum scelera mult a susurrarint, nihil tamen sinistri de tua vel 
pra?fati charissimi filii nostri, consortis tui iilustris, devotione per- 
suadere nobis potuit. Xota est nobis sinceritas, et pietas vestra, 
atque in Deum religio. Xon credimus omni spiritui. Si alienis 
querelis aures, non tamen mentem praestamus." [The whole of this 
curious bull is given by Llorente, — Translator.] 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



139 



the grossest ignorance, and sometimes influenced by 
fear and given to flattery. What praises have they not 
lavished upon the catholic zeal of Ferdinand the Fifth, 
for exterminating the Jews who lived in his dominions 
under the cloak of Christians, as if in all this monarch's 
actions the increase of the faith were his ruling prin- 
ciple ! What amount of merit have they not awarded to 
his unreasonable and unjust usurpation of the kingdom 
of Navarre (then in a state of schism), praising up to 
the skies the bold stroke of the Catholic king, and 
spreading the report that it was taken by him with the 
sole object of maintaining the unity of the faith in the 
Peninsula ! Oh, poor mortals ! How weak is your 
understanding and how easily deceived ! A thing done 
out of mere covetousness and in opposition to Christian 
piety, is now proclaimed by your tongues to be an act 
of service rendered to God ! An ambitious desire to 
augment the number and extent of seigniories attached 
to the crown is called by you zeal for the increase of 
religion ! 

Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, historian of the 
war of Granada, undertaken by Philip the Second 
against the rebellious Moriscos, and one of the ablest 
politicians, not only of those but of all ages, says, in 
a memorial presented to the Emperor Charles the 
Fifth: 41 " It is clear that when a person has a district 
within or near a seigniory, by which that province may 
be injured, the seigneur may with justice deprive that 

41 This work, in manuscript, and other papers likewise unpublished, 
are in the library of the author. 



140 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



individual of the right of admission to it, and give him 
an equivalent for it in another quarter, in which he 
may dwell free from suspicion. The best reason the 
Catholic Sovereigns could allege for their occupation 
of Navarre, was the injury which might be done in that 
quarter to the whole of Spain ; and it was on this prin- 
ciple that the king of France acted? 2 when he took pos- 
session of Burgundy, which is the key to his kingdom. . . 
Among learned men this was, at that time, considered 
a better title than approbation or investiture on the 
ground of schism?' 43 

Thus did Ferdinand the Fifth throw a cloak of 
Christian piety over his ambition and avarice, deceiving 
by these means a large portion of the human race. 44 
But how soever it may serve the interest and con- 
venience of the wicked to conceal the truth from the 
eyes of all human beings, it succeeds, eventually, in 
shedding its light abroad and dispelling the clouds of 
falsehood, which may obtain a temporary triumph over 

42 " Upon the death of Charles the Bold, he " (Louis xi. of France) 
** seized with a strong hand Burgundy and Artois, which had be- 
longed to that prince." Robertson's State of Europe, sect. 2nd. — 

Translator . 

43 Alluding to the Pope's permission to Ferdinand to conquer the 
kingdom of Navarre, which his holiness had declared to be in a state 
of schism. Zurita Historia del Rey Hernando, lib. ix., cap. 53. 
Abarca. Anales de Aragon, reign of Ferdinand, chap. 20. — Translator. 

44 I am strongly inclined to suspect that the author deceives himself 
in supposing that Ferdinand deceived any considerable portion of the 
community : it is far more probable that his wickedness was seen 
through by thousands, who durst not express their opinions respect- 
ing the conduct of this powerful prince. — Translator, 



III.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 141 

it and blind the human intellects, which always go hand 
in hand with ignorance and are ever fond of vulgar 
tales. 

I am persuaded that, in discoursing thus about king 
Ferdinand the Fifth, I shall draw down upon myself 
the ill-will of many, who will be silly enough to accuse 
me of being a bad Spaniard, merely because I do not 
allow my pen to repeat the errors which, up to this 
time, have falsified the history of my country. But I 
ask those who would brand me with the imputation of 
being a bad Spaniard for speaking ill of bad Spaniards, 
is not the unhappy Jewish race, which, through its 
misfortunes, has been domiciled in these lands ever 
since the seventieth year of the Christian era, as Spanish 
as our own? Could difference of religious persuasion 
from that of the kings and a majority of the nation 
deprive the Jews of their country? A word in their 
behalf : if denied the title of Spaniards, have they not 
the title of men, and even a still stronger one than that 
of men, that of an unfortunate people ? How then can 
I palm off covetousness and robberies as Christian acts ? 
This would be equivalent to canonizing wickedness, 
and attributing to the doctrine of the gospel that which 
is diametrically opposed to it. Let writers influenced 
by fear and in the habit of flattering others praise up to 
the skies those exploits of kings and tyrants of the world 
that deserve to be buried in the dust and obliterated 
from the memory of man. Let them apply the name 
Great to him, who to the injury of more than a hundred 
thousand of his subjects, dictates measures which tend 



142 HISTORY OF [BK. 

to the increase of his treasury, while he regards the 
sacrifice of human life as the mere overthrow of an 
obstacle to his acquisitions. Let them extol those who, 
to increase their seigniories, ruin commerce and agri- 
culture^ oppress tradesmen and farmers with taxes, and 
rob the earth of the hands which should be employed 
in its cultivation, in order that these same hands raay 
grasp the lance instead of the plough and the spade, 
and be engaged in the destruction of their brethren. 
Let them, in short, proclaim that they are wonderfully 
Christian kings who, in opposition to the commands 
of Jesus Christ, oppress men who have not embraced 
the faith — who think that the understandings of men 
can be led by violence into the belief of what is re- 
pugnant to them, and attempt to convince their op- 
ponents, not by reason, which distinguishes us from 
brutes and savage animals, but by force, which levels 
us to the grade of the brute creation. This style 
of preaching the Gospel is unworthy of men who call 
themselves Christians, for it is forbidden by Jesus Christ. 
Be it left to Mahomet and those who preach falsehoods 
to convey their religion to men's understandings at the 
point of the sword. Truth needs no force to obtain 
credit for itself, and they who take violent means to 
exalt it, are its enemies rather than defenders ; because 
injuries done under the pretext of enforcing truth, 
carry with them hatred, contempt, and reproach. For 
how can the oppressed love those who are the cause of 
their oppression ? How can persons think it possible to 
travel by the high road of wickedness to that of good- 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



143 



ness? How can they attach any credit to the truth 
when it is presented to their eyes with every appear- 
ance of falsehood ? It is true that Ferdinand the Ca- 
tholic rescued the kingdom of Granada from the do- 
minion of the Moors : that the Canary Isles, discovered 
in the reign of Henry the Third, were conquered in his 
time : that he furthered the expedition undertaken by 
Christopher Columbus for the discovery of the New 
World, which was foretold by Seneca in one of the 
choruses of his Medea : 45 that he incorporated the city 
of Cadiz and the marquisate of Villena with his crown : 
that he confiscated the county of Pallas : that he re- 
gained Rousillon and Cerdagne for the county of Bar- 
celona, which had been mortgaged to Louis the Eleventh, 
king of France, by John the Second of Arragon : that 
he conquered Mazalquivir, 46 Oran, and Bujia : that he 
protected the kingdom of Naples from French ag- 
gression. 47 But all our historians have committed an 

45 The learned Ferdinand Columbus, in a manuscript prepared by 
him, in which he compiled all that he found written in the ancient 
Greek and Roman authors respecting America, puts down in the 
margin of Seneca's verses : This prophecy was fulfilled by my father. 
This manuscript is in the library of Seville cathedral, [My friend, 
Mr. Clark, in his Gazpacho, page 221, says, " Columbus himself, in 
a memorial which I have seen in his own hand, appealed to this 
' prophecy/ as he called it." — Translator.'] 

46 Sometimes called Alcazar- quiver. — Translator. 

47 See Monarquia de Espana por Pedro Salazar de Mendoza, 
lib. in. tit. vii. caps. 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 18, and lib. in, tit. viii. 
cap. 2. Zurita, Anales de Aragon, lib. xx., passim, but particularly 
chapters 25, 47, 54, 56, 57, 58, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92. Historia del 
Key Hernando, lib. i. caps. 7, 10, 13, 14, 19, 20, 38 ; Kb. v. caps. 34, 
51, 52,53, 54; lib. vi. cap. 15; lib. ix. caps. 1, 14, 15. Abarca, 
Anales de Aragon, reign of Ferdinand, caps. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 13 ? 15, 19, 
21, 23. —Translator, 



144 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



error, and, in my opinion, a great error, in their 
narratives of the lives of kings : they measure the 
good actions of monarchs and the benefits which their 
good government confers upon their subjects by their 
successful battles, by the cities they have won, by the 
glory they have acquired in their military enterprises. 
Triumphs these are, indeed, and worthy of praise, but 
unworthy of occupying, as they do, not only the princi- 
pal place in their histories, but the whole of the reader's 
attention with the accounts of marches and counter- 
marches of armies, the sites of sieges and positions of 
military encampments, the assaults made upon cities, 
the enemies' attacks in open field or amid rugged 
sierras and mountains, the number of killed and 
wounded, and other things which, from such con- 
stant repetition as well as from their own tiresome 
nature, are apt to weary the mind. 

Some persons 43 will say that Ferdinand the Fifth's 
prudence was not limited to the mere care of augment- 
ing his states and territories, but was extended to their 
prosperity and improvement. How vain are their as- 
sertions, and how easily may their incorrectness be 
exposed ! Of this I shall give clear proofs in the 
course of my history : for the present, I must attend 
to matters connected with the Inquisition and the per- 
secutions raised against the converted Jews. 



48 I suspect that the author particularly alludes to Zurita and 
Abarca. It is very surprising that a man of such learning and 
generally good judgment as Mr e Prescott should eulogize the former 
historian in the manner he does. — Translator, 



in.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN, 



145 



In the year 1483, Fray Tomas de Torquemada, an 
inferior judge of the Holy Office, was elevated to the 
rank of Inquisitor-General in the kingdoms of Castile 
and Arragon/ 9 In order to double the confiscations and 
increase thereby the profits of Ferdinand the Fifth, he 
ordered a large number of this king's subjects to be 
burnt. 49 The children and families of these persons 
were reduced to the greatest poverty ; but what did 
the depopulation and misery of his subjects signify to 
this monarch, provided the extent of territory subject 
to him was increased by his conquests ? what cared he 
if, owing to the wars which he was obliged to sustain 
for the preservation of his conquests, he saddled un- 
happy Spain with the weight of heavy taxes, which, 
though they made her powerful abroad by the force 
of arms, reduced her to extreme misery at home, as 
was more clearly seen afterwards in the latter years 
of Philip the Second's reign, and throughout the reigns 
of his successors Philip the Third, Philip the Fourth, 
and that blockhead Charles the Second 50 ? 

49 Zurita, Anales de Aragon. lib. xx. cap. 49 ; Zuniga, Anales de 
Sevilla, years 1483 and 1524. — Translator. 

50 " Spain, the head of such an extensive monarchy, was the 
only country impoverished by its contributions towards the pre- 
servation of such vast possessions : this was more p articular ly the 
case in the loyal realms of Castile : the distress was occasioned by 
the new taxes, which Philip imposed with the consent of the states : 
this was the commencement of the depopulation and troubles which, 
in course of time, came upon Castile ; and this kingdom, once so 
opulent, began to decline in consequence of the rapidity with which 

burdens it was unable to bear were laid upon it ; and the minds 

of the subjects were filled with no slight astonishment, when they 
thought of the many m illions that had come from the Indies during 

Q 

li 



146 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



Torquernada, in order to persecute the Jews with 
redoubled severity, created four inferior tribunals; 51 
one at Seville, another at Cordova, a third at Jaen, 
and the fourth at a town of La Mancha, then called 
Villa (but now Cuidad) Real. The last-mentioned 
tribunal was afterwards transferred to Toledo/ 2 in 
which city the Inquisitors began to preach to the 
converts and urge upon those who persisted in Ju- 
daizing the necessity of denouncing themselves to the 
Holy Office ; for by such a proceeding they would 
escape with slight punishment, whereas this would 
not be the case if informations were laid against 
them by others. Xo Jews appear to have presented 
themselves to the tribunal to ask for mercy and ab- 
jure the errors into which they had relapsed : on the 
contrary, they are reported to have formed a con- 
spiracy, the design of which was to occupy the avenues 
of the four streets through which the procession was 
in the habit of passing on Corpus day, 03 to take pos- 

his " [Philip the Second's] " reign, and they commented on the strange 
historical fact that in the year 1595, in the space of eight months, 
thirty-five millions of gold and silver, which would have sufhced to 
enrich every prince in Europe, had passed the bar of San Luear, and 
in 1596 there was not a single real in Castile, and they asked what 
hadhecome of the wealthy rivers or seas of gold, and into what channel 
had they flowed f* Gil Gonzalez Davila : Vida y hechos del rev Don 
Felipe III. [lib. i. cap. 16. The San Lucar here mentioned is San 
Lucar de Barrameda, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. — Trans- 
lator.] 

51 Zdiiiga, Anales de Sevilla, aho 14S4. — Translator. 

52 In 1485, Paramo, lib. n. tit. n. cap. 7. — Translator, 

53 The first Thursday in June is, if my memory fail me not, the 
day on which the procession of the consecrated wafer (or Corpus 
Christi, as Romanists term it) usually takes place in Spain. — Trans- 
lator. 



III.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 147 

session of the city gates and the cathedral tower, to 
put all the Christians to death, and make a declaration 
against the continuance of the royal authority, which 
had given countenance and aid to the barbarity that 
had been displayed in oppressing and plundering the 
towns. But this conspiracy was discovered on Corpus 
eve by the corregidor, 04 who apprehended some con- 
verts, and, by torturing them, succeeded in obtaining 
accurate information of the whole plot formed by the 
unhappy Jews to punish the robbers of their estates, 
the destroyers of their houses, the defamers of their 
race, the persecutors of their persons and their con- 
sciences. When this came to the knowledge of the 
corregidor, he ordered one of the culprits to be hanged 
at the time of the procession, as a warning to the rest ; 
and on the following day, Bachelor Latorre (one of the 
ringleaders in the conspiracy) and four other converted 
Jews underwent the same punishment. And as the 
number of the offenders was so considerable as to 
render it impossible to punish them all, for they 
could not condemn the majority of its inhabitants 
without depopulating and otherwise injuring the city, 
the covetous inquisitors determined, though with much 
reluctance, on reducing the punishments to pecuniary 
fines, instead of total confiscation of property. They, 
eventually, drew from these sources large sums of 
money, which the king received with much pleasure 
and satisfaction, as they sufficed to keep his armies 
in pay for a considerable time. 

54 A corregidor is " a magistrate appointed by the king to govern 
a district." Seoane's Dictionary. — Translator. 



148 HISTORY OF [BK. 

At this season the authorities of the Holy Office 
called upon the Eabbis of the synagogue at Toledo 
to swear in their presence, according to the Mosaic 
form, that they would acquaint the tribunal with the 
names of all converted Jews who had obstinately per- 
sisted in Judaizing, and also threatened them with 
heavy penalties, death not excepted, in case of a breach 
of their oath. In addition to this, they ordered the 
Jews to put up in their synagogues certain large 
placards or excommunication, according to the usual 
form adopted hj observers of the Mosaic law, fulminated 
against all Jews who, when acquainted with the names 
of persons formerly converted to the Christian religion 
and now gone astray from it, should not give informa- 
tion of the same to the holy and pious tribunal. So 
fond were the Inquisitors of excommunicating, that they 
wanted the Jews themselves to excommunicate each other! 50 

This caused an increase in the number of the accused, 
the imprisoned, the reduced to ashes, and, in a word, 
the robbed. Andres Bernaldez, who was both a witness 
to all these atrocities and a friend to the judges of the 
Inquisition, relates that " since the year '88 [1488], the 
Inquisitors of Seville had burnt more than seven hun- 
dred persons, reconciled more than five thousand, and 
punished some who had already been in gaol four or 
five years and upwards with perpetual imprisonment; 
while others they dragged out of their prisons to clothe 
them with red sambenitos/ 6 with crosses on them before 

55 See Llorente, cap. yii. art. 2, last paragraph.. — Translator. 

56 There were also yellow sambenitos. The sarabenito is a large 



III.] 



THE JEWS IK SPAIN". 



149 



and behind ; and in this way they had to walk about 
for some time ; after which these were taken off them, 
that the land might not be additionally disgraced by 
the sight of such exhibitions." Hernan Perez del Pul- 
gar, in his Cronica de los Reyes Catolicos, declares that 
" two thousand of these (Judaizers) were burnt on dif- 
ferent occasions in some of the cities and towns, and 
others condemned to perpetual imprisonment." 57 

The cupidity of the Inquisitors and king Ferdinand, 
not satisfied with the amount, considerable as it was, of 
the confiscated properties of the heretics, invented a 
new plan to increase it : they determined to institute 
legal proceedings against some converted Jews who 
had been very rich, and who, fortunately for them- 
selves, were no longer alive. As a matter of course, 
these were found guilty, and by this means the funds 
of the royal treasury were augmented, and the Inquisi- 
tors became more and more eager to make similar 
prizes. The aforesaid Hernan Perez del Pulgar writes 
that " a large number of these " (deceased Judaizers) " was 
found, whose goods and hereditaments were taken and 
applied to the king's and queen's exchequer." 58 

scapulary, worn by persons condemned of heresy or strongly sus- 
pected of it, and on other special occasions : the word is a cor- 
ruption of saco bendito, which Mr. Prescott seems to doubt : I find, 
however, that Paramo, in his Latin history of the Inquisition, always 
renders it by the words saceus benedictus. — Translator, 

57 Parte 2 a , cap. 77. — Translator. 

58 Parte segunda, cap. 77 ; Paramo (lib. it. tit. ii. cap. 3) says, 
" Similiter etiam in eos qui non multo ante decesserant, Inquisitio 
facta est : quorum autem crimina probabantur, eorum ossa si inventa 
essent, concremata sunt. Hi fuerunt numero non pauci, quorum turn 
filii declarabantur publicis honoribus ac muneribus indigni ; turn 
vero bona omnia Regum erario confiscabantur." — Translator. 



150 HISTORY OF [BR, 

The avarice of Ferdinand the Fifth would not even 
allow him to respect the dead. He ordered their bodies 
to be disinterred and converted into ashes by the de- 
vouring flames, and, at the same time, he despoiled the 
children and heirs of the deceased of the estates which 
they had honestly and legally inherited, and thus re- 
duced them to extreme poverty. This was the act of 
that king so much eulogized in our histories by his 
flatterers, who either were foolishly deceived or durst 
not speak the truth. It was on the confiscations that all 
his zeal for the increase of the Christian religion in his 
lands and seigniories depended : it was on the confisca- 
tions that his desire to maintain the unity of religion in 
his dominions — an action about which his panegyrists 
have cackled so much — depended. It is true that he 
applied the proceeds of them to the conquest of other 
lands ; but, in doing this, he impoverished his own r 
it is likewise true that it was he who opened the door 
to his successors to carry the fame of Spanish valour 
into foreign kingdoms, at the expense of commerce and 
agriculture in Spain: but as the Spaniards made proof 
of their valour by injuring foreign states, the only fruits 
they reaped of it were the envy and admiration of the 
vanquished and oppressed, while Spain herself became 
odious to every province in the world, which felt the 
burden of her arms and the tyrannical rule of her kings. 

In the year 1485 many Judaizers, disgusted at the 
measures adopted against them by Pedro de Arbues 
(then an Inquisitor and now a saint!), determined to 
put him to death : he was slain while on his knees in 



111.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



151 



the metropolitan church of St. Saviour's at Zaragoza, at 
the hour of matins, while the other canons were praying 
in the choir. Pedro de Arbues was accustomed to go 
armed with a coat of mail under his dress, and an iron 
casque to protect his head ; the casque was concealed 
by a cap placed over it : whence it appears that the 
saint w 7 as prepared for a like mischance, though his 
being accoutred in so warlike a manner was not of 
the slightest avail to him. The old Christians rose up 
against the converted Jews, of whom several were ap- 
prehended ; acts of faith {autos de fe) were holden, 
which terminated in the burning alive of many per- 
sons concerned in the death of the saintly Inquisitor, 
and the funds of the royal treasury received an ad- 
ditional increase from the confiscated w r ealth of the 
delinquents. Hernan Perez del Pulgar, speaking of 
these men, says, " all their goods were applied to the 
king's and queen's exchequer, and these were very con- 
siderable. 59 

59 I have notbeen able to find these exact words in Pulgar, and hardly 
know whether the author refers to the concluding sentence of the last 
paragraph but one, or not. It does not appear to me that the historian 
of the Catholic Sovereigns there alludes to the murderers of Pedro 
Arbues, whose death he does not even mention. A minute account 
of this tragical occurrence, and of its fearful consequences to those 
concerned in it, may be seen in Zurita's Anales de Aragon ) lib. xx. 
cap. 65. Llorente tells a story current in Spain (founded, he says, 
upon a forged document), that the saint appeared, after his death, to 
one Bias Galvez, and charged him to tell Alonso de Aragon, Arch- 
bishop of Zaragoza, to inform Ferdinand and Isabella that seats in 
heaven among the martyrs were reserved for them, for having es-* 
tablished the Inquisition. The saint also commissioned Galvez to 
inform the Inquisitors that glorious seats among the martyrs in 



152 



HISTORY OP 



Any one would imagine that, with all the confis- 
cations above mentioned^ the two Catholic spouses must 
have been very powerful ; but it is well for him to 
know that, in entertaining such a notion, he wanders 
very far 60 from the truth. 

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, in spite of the 
excellent traffic which they carried on through the 
medium of their Inquisitor, were reduced to the low- 
est ebb of poverty, which was thus occasioned: when 
they found the kingdom in a state of extreme destitu- 
tion, instead of applying a remedy to it, they occupied 
themselves with making conquests, on which they spent 
the little stock of their own, in addition to large sums 
which were not their own, but were exacted from those 
converted Jews who had been punished by that tri- 
bunal, which was composed of wolves and other fero- 
cious and blood-thirsty wild beasts, that prowled about 
the world in the disguise of human beings. 

In order to show the amount of the sums expended 
by the Catholic Sovereigns on the war of Granada, I 

heaven were also prepared for them, out of respect for their firmness 
in upholding the Inquisition, and that they might be assured they had 
done icell in committing so many persons to the fames, inasmuch as all 
ichom they had punished with death, save one, ic ere condemned to hell ! 
" What a pity/' says Llorente, "that the saint did not declare the 
name of this person !" He proceeds to give a host of reasons to prove 
that the document on which the story was founded is a forgery : one 
of them will suffice. The saint speaks of Ferdinand and Isabella as 
Their Majesties, a title which the Emperor Charles the Fifth was the 
first Spanish monarch who ever assumed. See Llorente's Ristoria 
Crttica de la Inquisition, cap. yi. art. 4. — Translator. 

60 Literally, a hundred millions of leagues. A moderate distance ! 
^Translator, 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



153 



shall cite Hernan Perez del Pulgar's account of the 
way in which things were conducted at the blockade of 
Baza/ 1 and the plan adopted by the Queen for sup- 
plying the whole Christian camp : for though I am not 
fond of inserting many quotations from ancient authors 
in my histories/ 2 it will not, for all that, be out of the 
way to introduce some in this place, as they will give ad- 
ditional authority to my work, and silence those who do 
not believe many truths, which, if they rested on my 
bare assertion, would thereby run the risque of being dis- 
credited. Now these are the words of Pulgar (as they 
appear in his afore-cited chronicle) respecting the block- 
ade of Baza: "Since, owing to the difficulties and 
losses incurred by the transport of supplies, no trades- 
man, induced by the hope of deriving a profit there- 
from, would bestir himself to bring any for sale, the 
Queen ordered fourteen thousand beasts to be hired, 
in order that the army might be provisioned. More- 
over, she ordered all the wheat and barley that could 
be procured in all the cities, towns, and villages of 
Andalusia, and in the lands belonging to the Master- 
ships of Santiago and Calatrava, and in the territories 
lying between the Priorate of San Juan and Ciudad 
Peal, to be bought up, and charged certain persons to 
receive it, and others to convey it to the mills, request- 
ing the millers to grind it. ... . .the barley and flour 

61 Baza is a town in the province of Granada, and about sixteen 
leagues north-east of the city so called. — Translator \ 

62 Here I must beg leave to differ from the author, though I see no 
reason why he should make an apology for quoting any good writer, 
ancient or modern. — Translator, 



154 HISTORY OF [-BK. 

were received by officers appointed by the Queen, and 
by them conveyed to a place called the granary. The 
receivers were bidden to sell it to the soldiers at a 
fixed price, which neither rose nor fell. Taking into 
account the cost of the wheat and barley, and the 
price at which these commodities were sold, and other 
expenses incurred, the Igss on this commercial transaction 
was ascertained to be forty millions ofmaravedis and up- 
wards i in the space of six months. But. in addition to 
the other expenses incurred, the Queen was obliged to 
make this outlay for the provision of the camp, in order 
to remove all grounds of complaint about the insuf- 
ficiency of the supplies. Moreover, as the blockade of 
this city was a protracted one. and as time had con- 
sumed a large portion of the money of which the Queen 
was possessed at its commencement (and which was 
derived from the indulgence and subsidy and from 
her own revenues), she determined to raise a loan 
in all her dominions in support of this war. And 
with this object she dispatched letters to all the cities 
and towns, calling upon them each to lend her a 
certain sum according to the assessment respectively 
made upon each person. In addition to this, she wrote 
to the prelates, ladies and gentlemen, tradesmen and 
private individuals, to lend her money according to 
their ability. And as they all knew that the Queen 
was sure to repay the money she borrowed, every one 
lent her as much as he was able. Some ladies and 
gentlemen and other persons, aware of the strait she 
was in, even though they had not been called upon, 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



155 



seeing how she spent her money, voluntarily came for- 
ward and lent her large sums of gold and silver. And as 
these loans, which might amount to a hundred millions, 
were not sufficient to defray the continual expenses that 
occurred in the course of the war, she resolved to mort- 
gage a portion of her revenues for a certain amount of 
maravedis, which were to remain as a permanent charge 
on those revenues, payable to all persons who chose to 
become purchasers of them, and she teas to pay ten 
thousand maravedis for every thousand she received. 
i\nd to the numerous persons in her realms who had 
become purchasers of these maravedis, she ordered 
documents to be given, by which they were put in 
possession of revenues accruing from certain cities, 
towns, and villages in her realms, which they were to 
have and to hold, every year, until the money which 
the Queen owed them was paid off. By this mortgage 
of her revenues a large sum of maravedis was raised; 
but as this money was spent and yet did not suffice to 
defray the heavy expjenses incurred by the constant pa f* 
and other things connected ivith the war, the Queen sent 
all her gold and silver jewels, trinhets, pearls, and 
precious stones, to the cities of Valencia and Barcelona, 
to be pawned, and they were pawned for a large sum 
of money. 3 ' 64 

Whenever the war of Granada was carried on with 
renewed spirit, the expenses of the Catholic Sovereigns 

63 Of the troops, I suppose. — Translator. 

64 Pulgar. Cronica de los Reyes Catolicos. Parte in. cap. 3. — 
Translator. 



156 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



increased, while there was a corresponding decrease in 
the number of sources whence the money flowed in : 
hence it was that, urged to it by necessity, they de- 
termined on applying to those unconverted Jews who 
were reputed to be the most wealthy to supply them 
with heavy loans, payable on the surrender of Granada. 
This appears from the accounts of many historians. 65 

As soon as the Sovereigns gained possession of this 
city, which they did on the 2nd 66 of January, 1492, 
they found themselves under the necessity of paying 
their debts to their Jewish creditors, as they had pro- 
mised to do ; but, owing to the exhausted state of their 
treasury, they were unable to fulfil their word ; for the 
sums of money which they had expended in a war of 
such long duration and with such varied and strange 
fortunes, w r ere enormous, and during the war their reve- 
nues decreased daily : and while they were in this 
dilemma, Ferdinand the Fifth, as the best plan he 
could think of to get rid of the debt, issued a decree, 
on the 31st of March, 1492, that all the Jews who 
dwelt in the vicinity of the Aljamas of his kingdom, 

65 I have not seen any direct authority for this statement. Pulgar, 
in his Cronica de los Reyes Catolicos, parte 2 a , caps. 14 and 64, 
states that Ferdinand and Isabella borrowed large sums of money 
from the Christians and Jewish converts, and that the Pope granted 
them a subsidy from the revenues of the clergy : under these circum- 
stances, we very naturally infer that the unconverted Jews had also 
to contribute a portion of their funds. — Translator. 

66 Zurita, Anales de Aragon, lib. xx. cap. 92. Mariana, Historia 
General de Esparla, lib. xxy. cap. 18. Pedro Salazar de Mendoza, 
Monarquia de Espana, part. in. tit. iii., cap. 6. Abarca, Anales de 
Aragon, reign of Ferdinand the Fifth, chap. 3. — Translator. 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



157 



should turn Christians within the space of four months, 

or be banished from it. 67 

" Be it known unto you/' said the Catholic Sove- 
reigns, " and we will have you to know (for we have 
been informed that there have been and are certain 
wicked Christians in our realms), that in the Cortes 
holden by us at Toledo in the year 1480, we ordered 
all the Jews in all the cities, towns, and villages 
within our realms to live apart from other people, 
and we gave them Jewries and separate places, where 
they might live on in their error, and be stung with 
remorse for it, while in their state of separation : 
moreover, we ordered that an Inquisition should be 
made in all our realms and seigniories, which, as ye 
know, was made twelve years ago, and still continues 
to be made ; whereby, as is notorious, many culprits 
have been detected, according to the statements made 
to us by the Inquisitors and many other persons, 
religious, ecclesiastical, and secular : and forasmuch 
as the greatness of the mischief which hath befallen 
and still befalleth the Christians through the asso- 
ciation, conversation, and intercourse which they have 
kept up and do still keep up with the Jews, who 
pride themselves on their success in subverting peo- 
ple from our holy Catholic faith, is palpable 

In order that the Jews and Jewesses aforesaid may, 

67 Zurita, Historia del Rey Don Hernando el Catolico, lib. I. cap. 
6. Abarca, Anales de Aragon, Ferdinand the Fifth's reign, chap. 4. 
Paramo, lib. n. tit. ii., cap. 6. This writer limits the time allowed 
the Jews to remain in Spain to three months. Triniestri tempore 
prcestituto are his words. — Translator. 



158 HISTORY OF [BK. 

from the aforesaid day till the end of July, make 
better disposition of themselves, their goods and pro- 
perties, we. by the present decree, receive and take 
them under our royal protection, favor, and coun- 
tenance, and grant security to them and their goods 
from the present time till the last day of July afore- 
said, in order that they may go about in safety, and 
sell, barter, and alienate all their property, moveable 
or immoveable, and freely dispose of it according to 
their pleasure. During the said time, let no hurt, 
injury, or offence be offered to them, either in their 
persons or property, contrary to justice : all offenders 
against this our royal letter will have to answer at 
their peril for any such breach of law. We also 
permit and authorize all Jews and Jewesses to carry 
all their goods and property out of all our said realms 
and seigniories by sea or by land, provided they con- 
sist not of gold or silver, or coined money, or other 
things prohibited by the laws of our realms 99 [to be 
exported], " or prohibited articles of merchandize." 6 " 

I shall prove that Ferdinand the Fifth, in issuing 
his decree for the expulsion of the Jews, was influenced 
solely by interest : he was not provided with money 
sufficient to pay so many and such considerable creditors 
as they were, and, by obliging the Jews to be con- 
verted to the faith, he knew that the Inquisition would 
institute proceedings against the most wealthy of them, 
and thereby cause all their riches to pass into the royal 

68 See Zurita and Abarca, same chapters as cited in last note. 

— Translator. 



111.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 159 

coffers. I am now going to relate a fact which will 
corroborate my opinion, inasmuch as it will clearly show 
that, in all his undertakings, Ferdinand the Catholic 
looked merely to the triumph of his own ambition in the 
conquest of lands and dominions, and to the success of his 
cupidity in seeking for money to carry out his designs. 
The Jews, who were well acquainted with the character 
of the king, made him an offer of thirty thousand 
ducats, on condition that he and his consort should 
revoke the edict which had been issued for their ex- 
pulsion. As the smell of the money had now disposed 
Ferdinand to be prevailed upon by the solicitations of 
the Hebrews, and as their design was known to the 
Inquisitor Torquemada ; this scoundrel, availing himself 
of the privilege of entering into the king's chamber, to 
which (as being the king's confessor) he was entitled, 
brought in an image of Christ crucified, which he had 
concealed in his dress, and showing it to the king and 
queen exclaimed, Judas once sold the Son of God for 
thirty pieces of silver. Your Highnesses are thinking of 
selling Him for thirty thousand. Come, my Lord and 
Lady, here you have Him, sell Him. 69 Such is the 
account of this occurrence given by Posevino in his 
Apparatus Sacer and Luis de Paramo in his work 
De sancta Lnquisitione, authors as fanatical as they are 
ancient: this furnishes us with a very clear proof of 
the self-deception of those writers who corrupt the 

69 Paramo, lib. n. tit. ii., cap. 6. The passage is quoted from 
Posevino by Prescott in his history of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. n. 
p. 12-5, ed. 1846. — Translator. 



160 HISTORY OF [BK. 

truth, and believe the above-related occurrence to have 
been a fiction invented by foreigners, for the purpose 
of casting a slur upon the fair fame of the Catholic 
Sovereigns, or rather of Ferdinand the Fifth. Torque- 
mada himself, proud of having defeated the king's 
favourable intentions towards the poor unfortunate 
Hebrews, issued a furious edict, (denouncing most ter- 
rible anathemas against all who should disobey it,) 
that no Christian, after the time specified in the royal 
schedule, should give food or any thing else to un- 
converted Jews. 70 

It is said that the Spanish Jews then wrote to their 
brethren of Constantinople to ask advice and counsel of 
the latter as to what they had best do in the present 
emergency, and that the Jews of Constantinople an- 
swered them with the brevity that the case required, 
and with such dispatch as the remote distance of one 
country from another would admit. 

I have seen several specimens of the documents, 
every one of which appears to have been written by 
a different author. In order that the reader may con- 
vince himself of this I shall here transcribe a couple 
of the epistles sent, with the answers to them. 71 

LETTERS FROM THE JEWS OF SPAIN TO THEIR BRETH- 
REN IN CONSTANTINOPLE. 

" Honoured Jews, salvation and grace : Be it 
known unto you that the king of Spain, by public 

70 Paramo, lib. n. tit. ii., cap. 6, sect. 6. Zurita, Historia del 
Hey Don Hernando, lib. i. cap. 6. — Translator, 

71 The reader cannot expect that in a translation this difference of 
style should be so apparent as in the original. — Translator* 



II.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 161 

proclamation, ordereth us to turn Christians and is 
anxious to deprive us of our estates, taketli away 
our lives, destroyeth our synagogues, and so vexeth 
us in other ways that we are in a state of doubt and 
uncertainty how to act. We beg and entreat you by 
the law of Moses, to have the kindness to assemble 
together and acquaint us, as soon as possible, with the 
result of your deliberations. Chamorro, chief of the 
Jews in Spain." 

LETTER ON THE SAME SUBJECT IN A DIFFERENT STYLE. 

" As brethren and persons of the same persuasion 
as ourselves, who are equally interested in our mis- 
fortunes, we inform you of what is going on here, 
with the object of hearing your opinion and being 
guided by it in our proceedings : the king of Spain 
hath lately begun to use much violence and severity 
towards us, particularly in the profanation of our 
synagogues, in putting our children to death, and 
in taking possession of our estates : the worst of all 
is that he commandeth us to turn Christians within 
four months, or depart from his realms. Be particular 
in sending us your opinion on every one of these 
points, as we shall be guided by it. The trouble 
which overwhelmeth us preventeth us from coming 
to a decision. The mighty God Adonay be with you 
and us. 5 ' 

ANSWER FROM THE JEWS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 

" Beloved brethren in Moses, we have received 
your letter, in which ye mention the troubles and 

M 



162 History of [bk. 

afflictions that ye endure, of which as great a portion 
hath fallen to our lot as to yours. This is the opinion 
of the great satraps and rabbis. As for what ye say 
about the king of Spain 5 s ordering you to turn Chris- 
tians, ye should do so, as ye have no other course to 
follow. As for what ye say about his commanding 
you to be deprived of your estates, make your sons 
tradesmen, and thus deprive the Christians of theirs : 
and as for what ye say about their taking away your 
lives, make your sons physicians and apothecaries, 
and deprive them of theirs : and as for what ye say 
about their taking away your synagogues from you, 
make your sons clergymen, and let them profane and 
destroy the Christian religion and temple. As for 
what ye say about the vexations with which they 
harass you, contrive to get your sons government- 
appointments, whereby they may subjugate your 
oppressors, and ye may be avenged of them. Do 
not act contrary to these directions of ours ; for ye 
will find by experience that, though now in a low 
condition, ye will soon come to be regarded as men 
of some consideration. Usuff, chief of the Jews of 
Constantinople. 55 

THE SAME ANSWER IN A DIFFERENT STYLE. 

" We have received your letter, and felt as much 
concern and pain as it is possible for us to feel at 
your troubles and want of tranquillity : and as for our 
opinion that ye ask, after conferring with the most 
learned rabbis and cleverest men of this synagogue, 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



163 



we think that the best and last remedy for all these 
evils is to baptize your bodies, but to continue men- 
tally stedfast in your conformity with the require- 
ments of our law, and by so doing ye will be enabled 
to take vengeance on them for all the injuries they 
have done you : for if they have profaned your syna- 
gogues, make your sons clergymen, and then ye will 
profane their churches ; if they have slain your fathers, 
make your sons physicians, and ye shall slay their 
fathers ; if they have taken estates from you who are 
tradesmen, contrive to make their estates soon fall 
into your hands ; by so doing ye will be avenged 
on them for what they have done, and intend to do, 
to you. The mighty God Adonay be with you." 

But these documents are altogether apocryphal. The 
real author of them was Cardinal Siliceo, Archbishop of 
Toledo, who gave out, when he published them, that 
they were taken from the archives of his church. In 
making this announcement he had two objects in view : 
the first of which was to circulate the report that many 
Jews had turned clergymen for the sake of living in 
greater security from the Inquisition ; the second was 
to obtain from the court of Eome the statute of purity, 72 
which was to affect those who held prebends or bene- 
fices in that diocese. Then it was that the apocryphal 
letters mentioned in the first book of this history were 
dispersed throughout Spain in answer to the forged 
ones of Cardinal Siliceo : in fact this was a paper war- 
fare. The Cardinal declared that all persons of Jewish 

72 That is, purity of blood. See note to page 2.— Translator. 

M 2 



164 



HISTORY OF 



descent ought to be expelled from the prebends, bene- 
fices, and dignities of the Church of God ; for the 
majority of those Jews who remained in Spain after 
the expulsion of their race from that country, acting 
upon the advice of the Constantinopolitan rabbis, un- 
dertook those charges which best suited their interests. 73 
Those Jews who were really converted asserted their 
right to be admitted to such dignities, inasmuch as their 
ancestors had opposed the death of Christ — a notion 
founded on that letter attributed to the synagogue of 
Toledo. The fact of Cardinal Siliceo being the person 
who strove hardest for the statute of purity in this 
metropolitan city, and the fact that the aforesaid letter 
was attributed to the Jews of the Toledan synagogue 
who did not consent to the death of the Saviour of the 
world (for that was no less than the head and principal 
synagogue of all the Spains in those days, just as the 
cathedral of that city is the head of all the churches 
in these), make me suspect that these documents on 
both sides were, one and all of them, forged for the 
purpose of upsetting the arguments of their opponents. 

As the Jews had no choice left them but either to 
turn Christians, quit Spain, or die, they began to sell off 
all their goods ; and as the time allowed them to do so 
was so short (for Ferdinand the Fifth had even taken 
this into his calculation), they were obliged to part with 

73 Abarca says that the Jews, on whom penance was imposed by 
the Inquisition of Castile, were not Spaniards but Portuguese, either 
by birth or extraction. Can national prejudice be carried further 
than this ? See Reign of Perdinand V., chap, 4. — Translator? 



III.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 165 

their properties for very inadequate prices, and sell them 
for what the Christians chose to give for them ; and, 
according to Bernaldez, they would barter a house for 
a donkey, and a vineyard for a small piece of cloth or 
linen. n 

In July 1492, three thousand persons and upwards 
quitted Spain by Benavente for Braganza in Portugal : 
by Zamora, for Miranda in Portugal, thirty thousand : 
by Ciudad Eodrigo for El Villar in Portugal, thirty-five 
thousand : by Alcantara for Marban in Portugal, fifteen 
thousand : by Badajoz for Yelves in Portugal, ten thou- 
sand : so that by Castile alone, ninety thousand Jews 
left Spain for Portugal. By Rioja for Navarre went 
two thousand persons and upwards : by Biscay for the 
port of Laredo, three hundred families, which embarked 
for places beyond the seas : from Andalusia and the ter- 
ritory of the Mastership of Santiago by way of Cadiz, 
eight thousand Hebrews and upwards. Such, in short, 
was the case all over Spain. Bernaldez, on the au- 
thority of a rabbi whom he had converted to Chris- 
tianity, asserts that the number of Jews expelled from 
Spain exceeded a hundred and sixty thousand. Zurita 75 
augments the number to four hundred thousand, and 
Juan de Mariana 76 relates that it amounted to eight 

74 This passage is quoted in the history of Ferdinand and Isabella 
by Prescott, who laments that Bernaldez's works are not in print, as, 
being an eyewitness of the war of Granada, he would probably cor- 
rect many errors now current respecting it. See Paramo, lib. n. 
tit. ii. cap. 6, sect. 11. — Translator. 

75 Historia del Rey Don Hernando el Catolico, lib. i. cap. 6.— 
Translator. 

76 Lib. xxyi. cap. 1. — Translator . 



166 HISTORY OF [BE. 

hundred thousand. Lastly, Pedro de Abarca 77 says 
that there were a hundred and sixty (sesenta) thousand 
families. 

Gonzalo de lllescas, speaking in his Historia Pontifi- 
cal of the expulsion of the Jews by the Catholic Sove- 
reigns, says : " By this holy and rigorous law more than 
twenty-four thousand families and establishments of Jews 
were compelled to quit Castile. They sold all their pos- 
sessions, and those who went by sea had to pay the king 
two ducats a head. Many of them went into Portugal, 
whence they have, since then, been expelled. Others 
betook themselves to France, Italy, Flanders, and Ger- 
many, I was acquainted with one at Rome who had 
once resided at Toledo. A very considerable number 
of them went to Constantinople, Thessalonica, Cairo, 
and Barbary. They carried our language along with 
them, and have preserved it to this day, and delight 
in speaking it ; and it is certain that, in Thessa- 
lonica, Constantinople, Alexandria, Cairo, and other 
commercial cities as well as in Venice, they employ no 
other language than the Spanish in buying and selling 
and transacting business. When I was at Venice, I was 
acquainted with a great many Jews of Thessalonica, who, 
though mere lads, spoke Castilian as well as, if not bet- 
ter than, I did. Very great, indeed, are the profits 
which the Grand Turk derives from the tributes paid 

77 Anales de la Corona de Aragon [cap. 4 del Rey Fernando el 
Cat61ico. In my edition it is seventy (setenta). I should observe that 
all the writers cited in this paragraph, except perhaps Bernaldez, 
qualify their statements by such expressions as these.; it is reported* 
it is supposed, &c. — Translator, ] 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



167 



him by these people ; and it is said that Bajazet, who 
was living when they betook themselves to his do- 
minions, was in the habit of exclaiming (when per- 
sons puffed off to him the wisdom and discretion of 
the Catholic Sovereigns), / do not understand the wis-? 
dom of the] Spanish Sovereigns; since, when they had 
such excellent slaves as these Jews, they hanished them 
from their territories"™ 

"When these unhappy people departed from their 
homes, the Christians, seeing that many of them were 
suffering from the fatigues of travel, that some of the 
sick and convalescent were either journeying on foot 
or mounted on miserable steeds, were moved with com- 
passion towards them, and are said to have exhorted 
them to receive baptism and to put an end to their 
present and future calamities. But these entreaties 
were of no avail, since the Jews, disgusted at the 
rigorous orders of the Catholic Sovereigns, obstinately 
determined to adhere to their law even to death ; being 
persuaded that God would work miracles on their be- 
half, similar to those he had formerly wrought in Egypt, 
and that the land in which they were about to take up 
their abode, was the land of promise. This was the 
opinion of all except a few, who, though not convinced 
of the Messiah's advent, turned Christians, partly from 
fear of the inconveniences attendant upon travel, and 
partly from their strong affection for their native 
country. 79 

78 Seg a parte, lib. vi. cap. 20, sect. 1. —Translator. 

79 SeeFerreras, Synopsis Historiea de Espana, ano 1492, sect. 17: 
— Translator. 



168 



HlSTOItY 0^ 



Notwithstanding the injunctions which the Catholic 
Sovereigns had issued to prevent the Jews from carry- 
ing away with them either gold or silver, they took 
with them large quantities of both these metals, laugh- 
ing in their sleeve at the vigilance of their cruel per- 
secutors) and bringing the gold and silver away, 
concealed in the trappings of their beasts or in the 
inner garments of the women. 80 Intelligence of this 
trick was conveyed to the Catholic king, who, there- 
upon, found a new pretext for feeding his insatiable 
avarice. Accordingly, on the 2nd of September, 1492, 
he issued a warrant, signed by himself and his consort, 
for holding a commission of inquiry in the archdiocese 
of Toledo, respecting those Jews who, in defiance of 
his injunctions, had taken out of these realms gold, 
silver, money, or prohibited articles, and also for dis- 
covering what goods they had sold to the Christians, 
and for the immediate sequestration of all such goods. 
Thus did the Christians have to pay out of their pockets 
for the offences committed by the Jews who were now 
out of the kingdom ! This proceeding of Ferdinand the 
Fifth would be considered an extraordinary one, were 
we unacquainted with his motive for it ; but it shows 
us that this monarch cared nothing about the exigencies 
of his treasury^ for when they began to trouble him, he 
instantly hit upon an expedient for replenishing it, and 
dictated some measure for the confiscation of the estates 
of his wealthiest and most powerful subjects. 

80 Bernaldez, quoted by Llorente, cap. vm. art. i. sect. 8. Ferreras, 
ano 1492, sect. 19. — Translator. 



ni.J 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



169 



But the calamities of the unhappy Hebrews did not 
terminate with their expulsion, by the order of the 
Catholic Sovereigns. Out of five-and-twenty vessels 
that sailed from Cadiz and Port St. Mary, bound for 
Oran and filled with Jews, seventeen, under the com- 
mand of Pedro Cabron, were shattered on the high seas 
by a dreadful storm, and, in order to repair the damage, 
he was obliged to anchor in the waters of Cartagena. 
A hundred and fifty persons landed at that port, and 
after applying for and receiving baptism, set out for old 
Castile. The vessels went on to Malaga, and under 
colour of going to ask for provisions to continue their 
voyage, four hundred more families disembarked, and 
embraced Christianity, whilst the remainder of them set 
sail for Fez. The Jews who went to Portugal obtained 
permission from John the Second to live in that king- 
dom for six 81 months : this permission was granted them 
on condition of their paying him a crusado each. There 
they waited to see what kind of reception and entertain- 
ment had been given to their brethren who went to 
Fez, for it was commonly reported that they had been 
plundered at sea by pirates and in Africa by the Arabs 
of the country. At the expiration of the six 81 months, 
seven hundred families and upwards still remained in 
Portugal, each of which had to pay the king the tribute 
of a hundred crusados, besides an additional hundred 
jointly, and a capitation tax of eight crusados for each 
individual. On this the remaining Jewish families de- 
termined to go to the African port of Arcilla and thence 
81 Ferreras and Abarca say eight. — Translator, 



170 HISTORY OF 

to Fez, in March 1493 ; but as some of them went in 
Moorish ships, the Moors, eager to possess themselves 
of the goods and chattels of the Jews, murdered a large 
number of them on the high seas, although contenting 
themselves with merely plundering the majority. On 
receiving this intelligence the Jews resolved not to 
enter the Moorish territories, owing to their well- 
grounded suspicion that in them they would be likely 
to suffer new disasters : accordingly, they formed a kind 
of encampment in the neighbourhood of Arcilla, where 
they continued for some months without coming to any 
decision. But seeing at last that in every direction to 
which they turned their eyes, misfortunes stared them 
in the face, they notified to Count Borba, the Portu- 
guese commandant of the prison-fortress of Arcilla, 
their desire to embrace Christianity and to return to 
Spain, and requested him to provide them with means 
to put their plans into execution. 82 

This Portuguese gentleman, touched with a feeling 
of compassion for the calamities of the Hebrews, took 
opportune measures for satisfying the wishes of that 
unhappy race ; and, assisted by him, many families 

82 See Paramo, lib. n. tit. ii. cap. 6, sect. 11. Llorente, cap, vin. 
art. i. sect. 9. Ferreras, ano 1492, sects. 20, 21, and ano 1493, sect. 
16. Zurita, Historia de Hernando el Catolico, lib. i. cap. 6. The 
following passage from the Historia Geral de Portugal, by Lemos 
(quoted by Dunham, in his history of Spain and Portugal), will 
show that the exiles had to undergo even greater hardships than 
those mentioned in the text : " Nao he dizivel a persiguieao que 
fizerao os Mouros a esta escoria das gentes. Elles os anrontarao, 
os roubarao, os escarnecerao, e a vista dos frais e dos maridos dormiao 
com as mulheres e as Jilhas" — Translator. 



[bk. 



III.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 171 

kept continually pouring into Andalusia till the year 
1496, 83 some of which had already embraced Chris- 
tianity, whilst others intended to follow their example. 
The remainder of them went to Fez, where they met 
with insults of every description, and were plundered 
by the barbarous rabble, which in all respects (save 
religious creed) resembled the brutal judges of the 
Holy Office. Another party of Jews, who were ex- 
pelled from Spain, arrived in nine caravels at Naples, 
and as these persons had on their voyage contracted 
various kinds of diseases, occasioned by the numbers 
huddled together in such small vessels, they carried 
such a terrible plague with them to the Neapolitan 
kingdom that, in the capital of that state alone, up- 
wards of twenty thousand persons fell victims to its 
ravages." 84 

The Jews compared their expulsion from the realms 
of Spain to the calamities which their forefathers en- 
dured, when Zion was destroyed and her inhabitants 
dispersed all over the world, in the times of Titus and 
Vespasian. Equal to those, if not greater, were the 
misfortunes which befel the Jews when they quitted 
these realms, on which they looked with the same love 
as Palestine; 85 for ever since the destruction of Jeru- 

83 See Ferreras, ano 1492, sect. 21, and ano 1493, sect. 16.— Trans- 
lator. 

84 See Abarca, Anales de Aragon, reign of Ferdinand the Fifth, 
chap. 4. Zurita, Historia del Rey Hernando el Catolico, lib. i. cap. 6. 
— Translator. 

85 See Zurita, work and chapter referred to in last note.-— Trans- 
lator. 



172 HISTORY OF [BK. 

salem they have regarded Spain as their new country, 
and hence originated that affection for Spanish things 
which they cherish to this day, holding it, as they 
do, to be the highest honor to them that they are de- 
scendants of those who were expelled from Spain by 
the Catholic Sovereigns, and speaking the Castilian 
language in all its purity, and keeping in perpetual 
memory the Inquisition, which they porutray as a most 
cruel and voracious fury. Such is their abhorrence of 
this tribunal, that they have even endeavoured to find 
in the prophecies of the Old Testament passages di- 
rected against its ministers. 

[The author here gives an account of some Jewish 
poets, with extracts from whose works he fills three 
pages, which, not to fatigue the reader, 1 omit.] 

Those Jews who lived in concealment in Spain, 
when writing to their brethren in foreign kingdoms 
accounts of the persecutions and other punishments to 
which the Holy Office rendered them obnoxious, were 
obliged to be extremely guarded in the expressions 
they used: this tribunal they mortally hated because of 
its present acts of oppression, and also on account of its 
having been the engine which wrought most power- 
fully in procuring the banishment of their race from 
Spain. And yet there are some who imagine that 
when the Catholic Sovereigns dictated that measure* 
they were not influenced by cupidity, but holy zeal for 
Catholic unity in Spain ! 86 

86 See Abarca, Anales de Aragon, reign of Ferdinand the Fifth, 
chap. 4. — Translator. 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



173 



Mistaken, indeed, are they who hold such notions 
as these ! Ferdinand the Fifth never thought about the 
religious unity of the Spanish monarchy. Although 
his hatred was often on the very verge of bursting upon 
the court of Rome, it remained locked up in the prison 
of his own breast for some years. But at last it came 
to an open exhibition on the occasion of an apostolical 
legate having carried into the kingdom of Naples 
several excommunications, all of them prejudicial to the 
prerogatives of his crown. He then wrote to Count 
Ribagorza, his viceroy, lieutenant, and captain-general, 
that famous letter, which has seen the public light, at 
different times. Among the intemperate expressions 
which we find in it, directed against Pope Julius the 
Second, author of the offence above mentioned, the 
following occur : " We have been exceedingly troubled, 
annoyed, and aggrieved at all of this, and are very 
much astonished and displeased at your conduct, when 
we consider how important and how prejudicial to our 
interests, prerogatives, and royal dignity that act was, 
which hath been done by the apostolical legate ; par- 
ticularly as it hath been done in express violation of 
our rights, and is such an act as hath not been done 
before within our memory to any king or viceroy of our 
realms. Why did you not comply with our wishes and 
strangle the legate who presented the brief to you ? It is 
quite clear that the Pope will not limit his proceedings 
to that kingdom, if he discover that in Spain and 
France he is allowed to act thus, but will do the same 
thing in other kingdoms, for the sake of extending his 



174 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



jurisdiction. But good viceroys proceed in a summary 
way with such fellows, and by the infliction of a single 
punishment, prevent others from making similar at- 
tempts." 87 

In another passage of the same document he gives 

87 This letter, dated Burgos, the 22nd of May, 1508, was not known 
in Spain, until that famous writer, poet, and politician, Don Fran- 
cisco Gomez de Quevedo y Yillegas, a great friend of the Duke of 
Osuna, at that time Viceroy of Naples, found it, while examining 
some papers in the archives of that kingdom. An Italian gentleman 
asked him for a transcript of it, with which Quevedo furnished him ; 
accompanying, however, some of its boldest clauses against the Pope 
with notes, observations, and exculpatory remarks, all of which were 
published in the last century, in the first volume of the Setnanario 
Erudito. At a convenient season, Quevedo forwarded another copy 
to Spain, which was addressed to DonBaltasar de Zuniga y Acevedo, 
grand knight- courtier to Philip the Third, and afterwards a favourite 
of his son Philip the Fourth, together with the following letter, 
which is in my library, in a volume of divers manuscripts: "A 
gentleman of Italy asked me for that letter — a circumstance I took 
care to state in the reply I sent him, with that letter enclosed in it ; 
and in order that by this freedom I might not be too openly exposed 
and put in the power of men who cloak their malice under the garb of 
religion, I accompanied the letter with these notes, apprehending 
and fearing that such strong expressions and arguments as those em- 
ployed by that great king might prove dangerous when viewed by 
other eyes than those of your Excellency, and that none but persons 
of your experience can duly appreciate that which would scandalize 
a mind of inferior mould. I wished to send it you for the sake of 
amusing one of your leisure hours, and have no doubt that the com- 
munication of this writing to a person of so well-regulated a mind as 
yours, will tend to the service of His Majesty in the matter of juris- 
diction. God grant your Excellency long life and health. — Torre de 
Juan Abad, April 24th, 1621. Don Francisco Quevedo." [Ferdi- 
nand's letter is too long to insert in this place : from the tenor of it, 
I think he suspected that his viceroy had been tampered with, 
especially as he orders him to strangle the legate, if he can catch him. 
— Translator .] 



HI.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



175 



utterance to these highly significant words, which show 
his intention to become a schismatic. " We have writ- 
ten on this occasion to Jeronimo de Vich, our ambas- 
sador to the court of Rome, what you will see in the 
copies of our letter to him, which we transmit with this ; 
and we are positively determined, should his Holiness 
refuse to revoke the brief, as well as the acts performed 
by its authority, to deprive him of the obedience now 
paid him by the realms of Castile and Arragon, and 
to take such other steps and make such other provisions 
as a case of such gravity and emergency requires." 

Whence it appears that the idea of religious unity 
never entered into the head of Ferdinand the Fifth: 
for had he entertained any such notion, how could he 
have come to such a resolution as to renounce his 
allegiance to the Pope, and introduce schism into his 
realms? Be it observed that if, in this matter, Ferdi- 
nand did not actually satisfy his wishes, he was not 
restrained from doing so by want of inclination, but 
fear of those very arms which he himself was employing 
against the king of Navarre, to deprive that monarch 
(by virtue of the Papal authority) of his realms and 
seigniories, which were then in a state of schism. 88 

^ 8 " The Catholic king had no intention of ever restoring that state, 
which he considered as part and parcel of his dominions, nor did he 
entertain the slightest scruple of conscience about the matter, and 
this he repeatedly asserted. The grounds on which he justified his 
decision were three : the first of these was the Papal sentence, which 
deprived the reigning Sovereigns" (Jean d' Albret and his wife 
' Catherine) " of that kingdom : the second was the bestowal of her 
right to that kingdom upon the Sovereigns of Castile by the Princess 



176 HISTORY OF [BK. 

On the other hand, the Catholic Sovereigns^ in order- 
ing the banishment of the Jews, acted in direct oppo- 
sition to the rules of justice and the honor of the 
Gospel, and instead of rendering a real service to the 
Spanish nation, did it an infinity of mischief, the effects 
of which we feel even to this day. 

By their religious intolerance they opened the gates 
of persecution against those who were acquainted with 
the Hebrew and oriental languages, for they looked 
upon such persons as if they were Jews ; and by this 
proceeding they put an end to the study of those 
languages in Spain, to the serious detriment of the 
mental culture and learning of their subjects. 

The first restorer of Spanish literature, after the 
revival of the arts and sciences in Europe, was also the 
first learned man who suffered from the power of the 
Inquisition. In the comments which Don Antonio 

Blanche (first wife of Prince Henry, who afterwards reigned in Castile 
by the title of Henry the Fourth.), when her father king John of 
Arragon delivered her into the power of Gaston de Foix and her 
sister Leonor, both of them her declared enemies, whose sole aim was 
to put her to death, in order to secure to themselves the succession 
to Navarre, and it was right that he should avenge the death of 
Blanche by taking their kingdom away from the grandchildren of 
those who perpetrated that foul deed. The third reason was the 
claim to that crown which Queen Germaine set up after the death of 
her brother Gaston de Foix ; for though, in virtue of this title, the 
king, her husband, could not unite that realm to Castile, we may sup- 
pose that he did so with her consent, for we find that three years 
afterwards Ferdinand renounced his own right in the Cortes at 
Zaragoza, and transferred it to Prince Charles, afterwards king of 
Castile and Arragon." Mariana, Hist. Gen.de Esp. lib. xxx. cap. 24. 
—Translator. 



JIT.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 177 

Lebrija 89 put in the dedication of his Latin Grammar 
(in the year 1495), addressed by him to the Catholic 
Queen Isabella, he declared that as he had just finished 
writing his ideas on the antiquities of Spain, he was 
now resolved on devoting the remainder of his life to 
the study of sacred literature. 

At what period Lebrija first entered upon this useful 
task, it is impossible to ascertain ; nevertheless, from 
conjectures more or less probable, we infer that it was 
about 1497 or 1498 at the latest. He not only read the 
Holy Scriptures, but scrutinized every passage and 
even every word, comparing the Latin Vulgate (which 
was in print in his time,) as well as several manuscript 
copies of that version, with the original Hebrew and 
Greek, besides consulting some of the Fathers of the 
Church and ancient Biblical commentators ; and when- 
ever the discovery of a clerical error or inaccuracy in the 
Latin translation resulted from his labors, he suggested 
the true reading of the passage. Moreover, when he 
came to a word of recondite signification, he was wont 
to search the dictionaries and Scripture-interpreters, in 
order to ascertain what exposition they had given to 
it ; and when he perceived that they had not caught its 
true import, he took care to make this manifest by 
forcible reasons and sufficient authoritv. 

When the news of this useful undertaking of his was 
divulged, the fanatics were in a state of excitement, and 
many Doctors, who prided themselves on their learning, 

89 See Bibliotlieca Hispana, under word Antonius. Llorente; 
cap. x. art. iii., sect. 8, — Translator, 

N 



ITS 



HISTORY OF 



BK. 



were greatly exasperated : these fellows imagined that 
the Vulgate did not admit of improvement ; that it had 
ever been preserved in its primitive integrity by a 
species of miracle ; and therefore were scandalized 
and horror-stricken, when they heard of a man having 
the presumption to suppose that any passages in the 
standard Latin text could be found to require emen- 
dation. 

At this their conceit was so deeply wounded, that 
they could not patiently endure the thought that a mere 
master of Latinity (as they called Lebrija), a title of no 
value or authority, should dare to lay his hands upon 
the sacred books : for, said they, even granting the 
necessity, which there is not, of correcting any passage 
of the Vulgate, this would he a matter within the pecu- 
liar province of the Masters of Divinity y not that all 
Masters of this divine science would be so qualified, but 
only those who should receive the sanction and authority 
of a Supreme Pontiff or a General Council. 

This horde of presumptuous theologians, frantic as 
though an attempt had been made to pull down the 
fortress of the Catholic faith and raze it to its founda- 
tions, be°:an to storm with rage and declaim against 
the laborious Antonio de Lebrija, calling him rash and 
sacrilegious. So much did they talk against this learned 
man, that the news of what he had done came to the 
ears of Don Tray Diego de Deza, then Bishop of 
Palencia, one of the greatest monsters of cruelty/" who, 

90 Llorente, Hist, crit, de la Liq. cap. ix. art. i. sects. 1. 2. — Trans- 
lator < 



III.] THE JEWS ITS SPAIN, 179 

to Spain's dishonour and the disgrace of human nature, 
ever held the office of Inquisitor General : he was a 
man, in short, who so mortally hated both the Hebrew 
and Greek texts of the Holy Scriptures, that he deter- 
mined not to allow a trace 51 of them to remain in the 
Peninsula ; and so, with the same brutality as those who s 
when denouncing a person as a Judaizer, used to say, 
"Give me the Jew and I will return him to thee burnt ^ 
he incessantly persecuted the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, 
prying into the most hidden corners in search of them, 
with lighted torches always in his hands, ready to 
reduce the copies of them to ashes. 92 

Exasperated at the laudable toil of Lebrija. Deza 
presented himself before the Catholic Sovereigns anct 
requested them to give him an order to proceed against 
that illustrious man, for he well knew the Queen's 
partiality to literary studies, and did not dare to make 
an attack upon him without first obtaining the royal 
permission to do so. 

Deza then forcibly carried off all the manuscripts of 

91 Nam bonus ille prsesul (Deza) in tota quoestione sua nihil magis 
labor ab at quam ut duarum linguarum ex quibus religio nostra pendef 
neque v.llum vestigium relinqneretur. Lebrija en su Apologia al lector. 
[Walton says that this work, though not printed, circulates in a 
manuscript form. The passage from Lebrija, given in this note is 
quoted by Nicolas Antonio in the Bibliot. Hisp, — Translator.] 

92 Si Hebraicorum voluminum lectione nobis interdicitur, si He- 
brseos codices eliminant, dissipant, lacerant, adurunt. si Graecos libros 
minime putant necessaries, in quibus prima ilia nascentis ecclesise 
j acta sunt fund anient a, in chaos illud antiquum antequam lit eras essent 
inventae confundemur, atque cluobus sacrae Scripturae volinninibus 
orbati in sempiterna noctis cahgine versemur necesse est. Lebrija en 
la Apologia. [See also Llorente, cap. x. art. iii., sect. 8. — Translator], 

N 2 



180 HISTORY OF [BK. 

Lebrija that contained notes on the Holy Scriptures, 
and committed them to the flames ; thereby defrauding 
posterity of the fruit which it might have reaped of his 
Biblical labors. 93 

Distressed at this act of the Inquisitor, and appre- 
hensive of falling into disgrace with the Catholic Sove- 
reigns, Lebrija addressed to Don Fray Francisco Xi- 
menez de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo, a brief and 
eloquent defence against the accusations of his enemies; 
in which, not being able to contain himself, he burst 
forth into exclamations of grief and indignation to the 
following effect : " What ! then it does not suffice for 
me to enslave my own understanding in compliance 
with the faith, respecting the dogmas it proposes to me, 
but I am moreover bound to confess myself ignorant 
with regard to certain truths, which I know, not on 
grounds either dubious or supported only by probable 
reasons, but resulting from irrefragable arguments and 
palpable demonstrations ! What slavery is this, which, 
under the title of piety, does not permit me to manifest 
my way of thinking in matters by no means injurious to 
the faith? What! did I say manifest? nay, that does 
not even allow me to write down my opinion for my 
own use and within the secrecy of the closet — not even 
to mutter it within my teeth, or make it the subject of 
my meditations." 94 

93 Lee Llorente, cap. x. art. iii., sect. 8. — Translator. 

94 An milii non sit satis in lis quae mihi religio credenda proponit 
captivare intellectum in obsequium Christi, nisi etiam in iis quas 
mihi sunt explorata, comperta, nota, manifesta, ipsaque luce clariora, 
ipsa veritate yeriora, conipellar nescire quod scio, non allucinans, 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



181 



The false theories respecting the correctness and 
purity of the Vulgate outlived the death of Lebrija's 
persecutors, and to the misfortune and injury of theo- 
logical studies and of some Masters of Divinity, one 
set of divines after another handed down to posterity 
the maxims which they had successfully inherited, as a 
kind of heir-loom, from their predecessors : hence it 
was that after the Council of Trent had decided in 
favor of the authenticity of the Vulgate, these opinions 
had many advocates. 

The Tridentine fathers, it is true, allowed the use 
and authority of the Hebrew and Greek texts : but in 
consideration of the respect with which the Vulgate 
had been received from the first ages of the Church, 
and of its containing nothing contrary to religious 
doctrine and good morals, it was their will and intent 
only to decree that, thenceforward, Expositors of the 
Holy Scriptures, in their commentaries, glosses, and 
scholia ; Masters in their disputations ; and Preachers 
in their lectures or sermons, should use that version 
to the exclusion of all other Latin ones. It is likewise 
true that some Doctors who attended the council at th« 
time the decree was drawn up, particularly the Jesuit 

non opinans, non conjectans, sed adamantinis rationibus, irrefraga- 
bilibus argumentis, apodicticis demonstrationibus colligens ? Quam 
mala haee seryitus est, aut quae tarn iniqua, velut ex arce dominatio, 
quae te non sinat, pietate salva, libere quae sentias die ere ? Quid 
dicerer Immo nec intra parietes latitans scribere, aut scrobibus 
immurmurans infodire, aut saltern tecum {mecxim r) volutans cogitare. 
Lebrija en la Apologia. [Lebrija is better known, out of Spain, by 
the name of uiElius Nebrissensis. — Translator '.] 



182 



HISTORY OF 



Alonso Salmeron/ 5 and the Franciscan Andres de Vega, 96 
lost no time in publishing in print that the design of 
the Fathers in council was the same as we have above 
stated it to have been. But of what good was all this ? 
Testimonies of such weight and publicity were either 
unknown or disregarded. 

The illiterate theologians, blinded by the word 
authentic, which had been employed by the Council, 
gave the decree a wrong interpretation, and stoutly 
maintained that the Vulgate was to be regarded with the 
same veneration as if it had dropped down from heaven, 
or as if the Holy Spirit had guided the translator's 
hand : by this means they finally carried their point 
and got their way of thinking to be generally, or all 
but generally, received. 

Now the evil did not stop here : in the code of 
rules used by the officers of the Inquisition, the respect 
due to the Vulgate was set down, almost as a point of 

95 See Bibliotheca Hispana, under word Alphonstjs. — Translator, 

96 Andres de Yega, in the fifteenth book, ninth chapter, of his work 
entituled, Tridentini decreti de justificatione expositio et defe?isio, ad- 
dresses these words to Calvin : " Et ne dubites de his, verissime possum 
tibiallegare pro his amplissimum etobservantissimum dominumsanctse 
erucis Cardinalem, de pietate et de literis et studiosis omnibus optime 
meritum, qui illi sessioni et aliis omnibus prsefuit, ac pridie quidem 
quamiliud decretum firmaretur, et postea, non opinor semel, mihi testa- 
tus est nihil amplius voiuisse patres firmare. Itaque nec tu, nec quis- 
quam alius, propter hane approbationem yulgatse editionis, impeditur, 
quominus, ubi hsesitaverit, ad fontes recurrat et in medium proferat 
quicquid habere potuerit quo juventur et locupletentur Latini, et 
vulgatam editionem ab erroribus repurgent, et quae sensui Spiritus 
Sancti et ipsis fontibus sunt magis consentaneaassequantux." — [Page 
755 in 4to edition of 1621.— -Translator ,\ 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



183 



doctrine, in the terms above explained : the conse- 
quence of which was that some learned and pious men 
were treated by its tribunals as offenders against the 
faith, for having shown their preference for the original 
texts of the Sacred Books and for having paid defe- 
rence to them. 

To this class belongs Alfonso de gamora, first pro- 
fessor of Hebrew in the University of Alcala, and 
one of those who laboured most in preparing the edition 
of the Complutensian Bible : this person, after the 
death of his protector Cisneros, was robbed of the 
fruits of his labor and pains by the machinations of two 
perverse men, who were shielded by the authority of 
a brutal Inquisitor. 97 

Of the same class was the Augustine friar Luis de 
Leon, professor in the University of Salamanca, who 
passed nearly five years in the Inquisition of Valladolid, 
bitterly lamenting the narrow limits and obscurity of 
the dungeon in which he lay, and complaining of his 
persecutors in these well-known lines : 

** Here envious hate and slanderous tongues 

Have made me pass my life : 
Happy the scholar who retires 

Ear from worldly strife : 
The man who communing with God, 

Content with humble fare, 
I4ves all alone, and envies not, 

Him envy's tongue will spare/' 

Thus did he bewail the mortal hatred and excessive 

97 See Biblioteca de los Rabinos Espanoles ; and Bibliotheca His- 
pana, under word Alphonsus. — Translator, 



184 HISTORY OF [BK. 

tyranny of his calumniators, the unfair advantages they 
took in attacking him, the forgetfulness of some friends, 
the rain and useless sympathy of others, the dilatori- 
ness of the proceedings against him, and their doubtful 

result. 98 

Such a one was the famous master Fray Alonso 
Gudiel, likewise an Augustine friar and a great preacher, 
who perished within the prison walls of the tribunal of 
the Holy Office : his corpse was thence removed and 
delivered to the monks of his order, to be bv them 
interred, though by no means sure of remaining in that 
continual peace and quiet usually conceded to the dead, 
for his cause was still proceeded with, and in che in- 
terim his bones ran the risque of being disturbed." 

Another of these was Martin Martinez Cantalapiedra, 
professor of Hebrew in the schools of Salamanca, who 
fell into the clutches of the Inquisition of Valladolid, 
from the dark dungeons of which he eventually came 
forth to the light of liberty, though with his forehead 
stained with the same black dye as that with which 
some passages of his printed works had been ordered 
to be smeared. 100 

Of the same class was Gaspar de Grajar, abbot of 
Santiago de Peiialba in the cathedral church of Astorga, 

95 Bibliotheca Hispana, under word LmoYicus, and Llorente, cap. 
xxy. sect. 58. — Translator. 

99 Nicolas Antonio gives a brief notice of Alonso Gudiel in the 
Bibliotheca Hispana, under word Alphoxsus, but makes no mention 
of his imprisonment or the persecutions he suffered. — Translator, 

100 See Bibliotheca Hispana, under word Martixus, and Llorente. 
cap. xxy. sect. 22. — Translator, 



III.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 185 

who was tried in the fire of the same crucible, and 
ended his days in prison, deprived of the comfort he 
would have derived from hearing that declaration of 
the soundness and orthodoxy of his tenets which was 
made after his death. 101 

Such another, lastly, was Benedicto Arias Montano, 
a professed monk of the order of Santiago in the royal 
convent of San Marcos de Leon : he was a great theo- 
logian (a fact clearly proved by the number of valuable 
works of his that are in print), and one of the most 
famous doctors present at the Council of Trent. It is 
well known that he was the principal commissioner em- 
ployed in editing that Bible, which was called Royal, 
because undertaken by the king ; Philippine, because 
executed at the expense of Philip the Second ; Antwerp- 
ia?i, because printed at Antwerp ; Plantinian, because 
printed at the press of Plantinus ; Polyglott* because it 
is in many languages ; Montanian, because this famous 
doctor (as we observed) undertook the editorial part of 
the work, in which labor he was assisted by the Uni- 
versities of Paris, Louvaine, and Alcala de Henares. 102 

Leon de Castro, professor of Hebrew at the Univer- 
sity of Salamanca^ a jealous man who could not endures 
the thought of Philip having committed the editorship 
of the Bible to a doctor of Alcala, began to declaim 
against and find fault with it ; he even went so far as 

101 Nicolas Antonio mentions this writer in his Bibliotheca Hispana, 
under word G-aspar, but says nothing about the persecutions he en- 
dured nor of his imprisonment.— Translator. 

102 Bibliotheca Hispana, under word Benedictus ; Montanus's pre- 
face to this Bible, and Llorente, cap. xxix. art. ii, sect. I.— Translator. 



loD HISTORY OF [bR. 

to assert that in the most important parts of the work, 
Arias Montano had followed the erroneous readings 
usually given to them by the Jews, to the great in- 
jury of the Christian religion. On this the Inquisitors 
made a fuss : those of Toledo determined, with the 
assent and consent of Cardinal Gaspar Quiroga, that 
these readings should be examined and qualified : this 
was done, and the respect due to the multitude of 
learned men and exalted personages who took part in 
the publication of this Bible, was trampled under foot 
by the Inquisitors, who paid no regard to the consulta- 
tions previously holden by the aforementioned persons, 
nor to the care they employed in order to execute their 
undertaking in the best manner possible. 103 

103 Pedro de Fuentiduena, in a letter, still in manuscript, addressed 
to Cardinal Stanislaus Osius, respecting the persecution raised against 
the pious Benedicto Arias Montano (an intimate friend of his), in 
consequence of the printing of the Polyglott Bible at Antwerp by 
Plantinus, says : " Ex hac enini schola Salamantina prodierunt, et in 

ea versantur, qui has modo tragqedias excitarunt Adripiunt 

enim eausam ex concilia decreto, quo decernitur ut haec ipsa 

vulgata inpublicis lectionibus, disputationibus,pr8edicationibus, 

et expositionibus, pro authentica habeatur, et ut nemo earn rejicere 
quovis prsetextu audeat vel praesumat. Haec sunt legis verba, quae 
quidem ita illi accipiunt, ut non modo qui de ejus aliquid auctoritate 
detraxerit, sed qui vel punctis et apicibus vulgatae editionis fidem non 
adhibuerit, haereseos crimen incurrisse clament : deinde non licere 
jam confugere ad Hebraeos et Graecos codices, immo vero illos per 
hanc Latinam vulgatam editionem esse corrigendos. Haec ego non 
scriberem nisi interfuissem publicis disputationibus theologicis, qui- 

bus id agitari et pertinaciter defendi ac animadTerti Hi vero 

mordicus tenent solam vulgatam editionem incorruptam esse ; He- 
brseos vero codices et Graecos corruptos atque depravatos jam olim 
fuisse. Vulgatam editionem volunt unicum esse canonem Divinorum 
omnium scriptorum : aliis haec non probantur. Kes ut plena offen- 



111.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN, 



187 



The theologians of the University of Alcala had, with 
the assistance of Arias Montano, pointed out the mode 
to prepare this edition of the Bible; they were com- 
missioned to do so by the Supreme Council of the In- 
quisition, to which Philip the Second, the munificent 
patron of the undertaking, had entrusted the business. 
For the execution of this task, the king himself sup- 
plied Arias Montano with instructions that were in con- 
formity with the determinations of the Complutensian 
divines. 104 Many eminent doctors of the University of 
Louvaine and other places assisted Arias Montano's 
learning with their useful observations and valuable 
manuscripts. Everything was examined with the most 
scrupulous minuteness when the Bible was issuing from 
the press ; and, as a seal and safeguard to such im- 
portant and such pious labors, Pope Gregory the 
Thirteenth himself expedited a brief of approbation, 
which was printed at the commencement of the work. 105 

To this no regard was paid, for the whole attention 

of the Inquisitors was directed to the clamours of Leon 

de Castro, an insolent madcap, in whom the person of 

Euffinus, St. Jerome's adversary, was revived. For, 

after the example of Euffinus, he said the Hebrew text 

had been corrupted by the Eabbins, and consequently 

sionis et quae serpat quotidie longius nOn sine periculo miiltarum." 
[SeeBibliotheca Hispana ; Biblioteca de los Rabinos Espanoles, chap- 
ter on R. Abraham Husque ; and Liorente, cap. xxix. art. ii. sects. 
2 and 5. — Translator.'] 

104 Complutum was the ancient name of Alcala. — Translator. 

105 Liorente, cap. xxix. art. ii. sect. 1. Biblioteca de los Rabinos 
Espanoles, in voce Abraham Husque (p. 524, col. 2), and Arias Mon- 
tano's preface to his Bible. — Translator, 



188 HISTORY OF [BK. 

that all who, with Jerome, set up the authority of the 
original Hebrew, were actually Judaizers and sworn 
enemies of the Church. To such a pitch of perverse- 
ness was this opinion carried by unsound divines, that 
father Jose Sigiienza, in his excellent life of St. Jerome, 
fifth book, second discourse, said, On discovering that 
persons know two letters of the Hebrew language, they 
suspect them of Judaism : ignorant must they be, indeed, 
who entertain such notions as these ! 106 

It was no slight triumph to Arias Montano that the 
new Polyglott should have been allowed to circulate 
without notes or comments : and considering the custom 
and practice of the Inquisition, it might be regarded as 
a wonderfully strange thing that this tribunal should 
not have instituted proceedings against the illustrious 
doctor who edited the work, for the purpose of arrest- 
ing and imprisoning him, did we not know that large 
sums had been expended on the Polyglott ; that its 
magnificence and beauty were the admiration of all 
Europe ; and that as it bore the name of the monarch 
who had ordered it to be published, Philip the Second 
was obliged, for the sake of his own interest as well 
as his credit, not to allow of the work being impugned, 
inasmuch as the like consent on his part must redound 
to his own shame. He, therefore, took care that the 
Bible should be submitted to the censorship of father 
Mariana, 107 who pronounced in favor of Montano, not- 

106 Sigiieiiza was sentenced to a year's imprisonment by the In- 
quisition of Toledo. Llorente, cap. xxy. sect. 98. — Translator, 

107 Mariana was a long time immnred in the prisons of the Inqui- 
sition. Llorente, cap. xxy. sect. 64. Bibliotheca Hispana, under 
word Johaxxes. — Translator. 



Ill,] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



189 



withstanding the pertinacity of his companions the 
Jesuits, who, owing to the disgust they felt at the 
freedom with which he spoke as well as wrote against 
them, wished Mariana to give an adverse decision : 
proof of this may be seen in the extremely rare 
documents which I publish as an Appendix to this 
history, for the purpose of undeceiving such fanatics 
as disbelieve in the subtle wiles and wickedness of 
the Jesuits. 

Such of the Spanish theologians who had been ar- 
rested as did not belong to the noble class, on seeing 
the miserable state of oppression and ignominy to which 
their superiors were reduced, believed themselves to 
be threatened with the same lash, and all of them 
became dispirited thereat. Owing to the state of alarm 
they were in, some condemned themselves to the obser- 
vance of a perpetual silence respecting the Vulgate and 
the original versions of Scripture, or endeavoured to 
explain them in a qualified sense — the offspring of fear 
rather than ingenuousness ; 108 whilst others, abandoning 
the side of truth, went over to the multitude, this 
being the only means by which they could promise 
themselves security from molestation. From that time 

108 Father Basilic Ponce, an Augustine friar, in the introduction 
to his fourth expository question, writes thus: "De Sacrae Scripturee 
ratione et ejus in yarias linguas translationibus mult a scribi possunt 
et scitu digna, et cognitu pernecessaria. De quibus qui recte scribere 
poterant, aut sciibere noluerunt, aut parcius id fecerunt, argumentum 
invidiosum yeriti. Qui yero aut judicio aut necessaria ad judican- 
dum eruditione carebant, scribere ausi sunt. Itaque quasdam per- 
peram, plura inconsiderate, pleraque inerudite scripserunt." 



190 HISTORY OF [BK. 

the Holy Books were given up to unskilful hands, 
and in the following ages the theologians of the Penin- 
sular schools became entangled in the meshes of futile 
and complicated questions/ 09 and the oriental languages 
were banished from their halls. These are the pre- 
cious fruits which Spain has reaped from her unworthy 
treatment of such distinguished persons ! These are 
the fruits of which the Catholic Sovereigns sowed the 
seeds, when they destroyed the Hebrew Bibles and 
persecuted the learned, solely because they preferred 
the original versions of the Scriptures to the Vulgate 
edition of them ! 

But if by the religious intolerance of the Catholic 
Sovereigns and their unjust proceedings against the 
Jews, injury was done to the literature of Spain, no 
less injury was done to her commerce, and subsequently 
to the whole of her realms, by the expulsion of that race, 
and the arrival of Genoese and other foreigners, who 
established houses of trade and commerce there : these 
houses were, generally, dependent upon the principal 
ones in the mercantile cities of Italy and other towns, 
and their establishment was productive of serious evil. 

The whole commerce of Spain fell into the hands 
of foreigners, and while they grew rich, this country 

v 39 I have seen theological works printed in one or two folio 
volumes, in which the attempt is made to ascertain from texts of 
St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, and other holy fathers of the 
Church, whether chocolate is an eatable or a beverage ! And with- 
out going further, who has not read the Ente dilucidado, in which 
there is a long discussion as to whether hobgoblins possess the sense 
of touch or not ? 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



191 



became weaker and weaker and declined in a wonderful 
manner. The Spaniards ceased to be mercers and 
manufacturers ; consequently the immense sums of gold 
and silver imported from America did not contribute 
to the restoration of Spain, but only helped to enrich 
foreign kingdoms. 

Much outcry has been raised against the Spanish 
economists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
for petitioning for the abolition of free trade. But 
they were travelling on the road which led to truth 
and justice. What more efficacious remedy than the 
one proposed by them could have been devised for 
the eradication of the evils endured by a nation, in 
which not one of the natives either kept a mercer's 
shop or became a merchant ? 

In the seventeenth century, no sooner had Philip 
the Third issued his decree to prevent his subjects from 
dealing with those of his enemy, the king of England, 
(reviving that decree which Philip the Second had 
published at the commencement of the war between 
him and his rival Elizabeth,) than some learned men, 
anxious for the prosperity of Spain, began to think 
of a remedy for the evils from which she was suffering, 
owing to her want of money as well as population in 
many of her finest cities. 110 And after divers arguments, 
they came to the conclusion, that the introduction of 
foreign agricultural produce and articles of foreign 
manufacture into these kingdoms had operated more 

110 See Gil Gonzalez Davila's Yida y hechos de Felipe TH., passim. 
— Translator . 



192 



HISTORY OF 



powerfully than any other cause in producing the 
greater part of those evils. 

Don Mateo de Lison y Biedma, seigneur of Alga- 
rinejo, veinticuatro of Granada, and representative in 
Parliament for that city in the year 1621, among his 
other speeches and notes committed to the press* 
published a treatise on the introduction of foreign 
merchandise into Spain, of which the following is an 
extract : " The introduction of foreign merchandise 
into these realms has been attended with much evil 
to them, for the foreigners carry off the gold and 
silver coin paid for these articles, grow rich and power- 
ful, while they cause a diminution in your Majesty's 
revenues, drain the coffers of your subjects, whom 
they deprive of the means of gaining a subsistence by 
art and industry, and, in the interim, themselves keep 
advancing. Now since God has made your Majesty so 
mighty a lord, and since you have in your lands and 
seigniories mines, treasures, and all things necessary 
for the support of human life, as well fruits of the 
earth as riches acquired by art and science, and have no 
need to depend upon any foreign kingdom, may it 
please your Majesty to order this evil to be remedied 
by prohibiting, in the most inoffensive manner possible, 
the admission into these realms of merchandise wrought 
and manufactured abroad. Then will the same thing 
happen as in one ship cut off from communication with 
another ; if the people on board speculate and gamble, 
the money and the treasures contained in the ship may, 



III.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 193 

indeed, change hands, but must remain in possession 
of the same community. 55111 

Before Lison de Biedma had petitioned Philip the 
Fourth in the Cortes to prohibit the importation of 
foreign merchandise, Dr. Sancho Moncada, in his 
Restaur acion Politico, de los Pueblos de Espaha, at- 
tempted to prove that the only remedy for the present 
state of things was the enforcement of the following 
regulations, viz. : that none but Spaniards should carry 
on trade and business in Spain ; that raw materials, to 
be afterwards manufactured abroad, should not be ex- 
ported from these realms ; and that articles of foreign 
manufacture should not be imported. 

Licentiate Pedro Fernandez Navarrete, in his Dis- 
cursos Politicos, likewise expresses himself in similar 
terms. 

Jeronimo de Ceballos, in his Arte real para el buen 
gobierno de los reyes y principes, speaks thus : " Wealth 
and plenty cannot exist, so long as the subjects are 
in want of employment and none can be found them : 
this want might be remedied by prohibiting absolutely 
the importation of foreign cloths and manufactured silks, 
or by at least insisting that all which shall be imported 
in future be of standard weight and quality; due re- 
spect being had in the working of them to the ordi- 
nances of Spain, for it is not fair that the natives 
of these realms should be fettered with laws and ordi- 
nances and be liable to informations and punishments 

111 This simile, notwithstanding its singularity, must, I think, be 
admitted to be a good one. — Translator. 

O 



194 



HISTORY OF 



[bk. 



for transgressing them, while foreigners are exempted 
from such restrictions, and actually introduce mere 
imitations, for which they carry off our money ; a thing 
which would be endurable, were they to take merchandise 
of Spanish manufacture in return" 

Such was the language used by Ceballos, with 
respect to the trade carried on in Spain by foreigners 
exclusively. Fray Jeronimo Bolivar, Francisco Mar- 
tinez de la Mata, Cristobal Perez de Herrer, Luis de 
Castiila, Damian de Olivares, Miguel Caja de Leruela 
and others have expressed themselves on this subject 
in the same or similar terms. 

But though the grounds on which these economists 
based their arguments appeared strong to persons re- 
duced to poverty, and, consequently, both anxious for 
a change in their circumstances and eager to discover 
the means of effecting it, their arguments were not, at 
the time, considered to be based on reason and truth, 
but on that undue love of country to which they had 
been conducted by the crooked path of error. 

Let this appear from the opposition some of them 
made to the restrictions on free trade — restrictions 
which lasted only during war time, and even then only 
affected that nation against which the Spanish arms 
were employed. Let the same thing also appear from 
the treaties of peace in which it was stipulated that 
there should be free trade between the subjects of both 
kingdoms. 112 

112 In the year 1604 a treaty of peace and another of commerce 
were ratified between Philip the Third of Spain and James the First 



III.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 195 

The majority of the economists looked to the aboli- 
tion of foreign trade as the best means of improving 
the condition of Spain. In that age foreigners were 
the only, or at any rate the principal, persons who 
carried on the commerce of this country, and these 
men put the most exorbitant prices on the merchandise 
which they introduced from abroad ; for, unacquainted 
as the Spaniards were with the value of the goods 
just turned out of the factories, they paid whatever 
price was asked for them. 113 

So completely was Spain given up to the cupidity 
of foreigners, that in their commercial dealings they 
made their own will stand for law. The few manu- 
factures then existing in this country were burdened 
with most grievous taxes : whence we naturally infer 
that it was owing to these taxes that the cloths manu- 
factured in these realms could not compete in lowness 
of price with those introduced from foreign countries. 
Hence it was that purchasers looked for such mer- 
chandise as combined excellence of material with cheap- 
ness : hence, in a word, the Spanish factories neither 
yielded a profit to the owners of them, nor helped to 

of Great Britain. Gil Gonzalez Davila, Yida y hechos de Felipe III., 
lib. ii. cap. 16. Rapin's History of England, Book xvn. — Translator. 

113 << The names of many of the streets— O Francos, Genoa, Ale- 
manes, Placentines, &c, are the surest evidence that traffic was 
chiefly managed by foreigners, and this even in Seville — the heart 
of the vaunted silk and other manufactures of Spain." Ford's Hand- 
book of Spain, vol. i. p. 242, 2nd column, Murray, 1845. I recollect 
at Cadiz a Calle de Flamencos Borrachos {Drunken Flemings' Street) . 
— Translator. 

02 



196 HISTORY OF [BK. 

improve their incomes : on the contrary, these were 
vainly and unprofitably squandered away. 

Such were the fruits that Spain reaped from the 
expulsion of the Jews 114 and the arrival and settlement 
of foreign merchants in the Peninsula. Of what use 
to us were the riches of the Xew "World, which 
were no sooner acquired than employed as a bridge 
of passage into foreign kingdoms ? A century after 
the Genoese houses of commerce were established in 
Spain, there were neither eyes enough to weep for 
the calamities introduced by bad government and the 
recklessness of our kings, nor hands to repair the 
ruined state of the Peninsula. Of what avail to Spain 
was the external grandeur of beinsr mistress of so lar°'e 
a portion of the globe, when to support that grandeur 
she herself became wretchedly poor and miserable, 
and all her children humbled and disheartened ■ How 
many disasters did not the Catholic kinsfs wars in 
Italy bring upon these unhappy kingdoms • But what 
could be expected of a monarch who had no regard 
for the welfare of his subjects, and only looked to 
the increase of his own power and greatness ? The 

114 The statute of purity, which, was originally enacted for the pur- 
pose of eradicating Judaism and Mahoinetanisrn, became afterwards 
the instrument of persecution of Christians owing to false informa- 
tions, &c, and many of these were expelled from Spain also. So sensible 
had the Spanish nation become of the evils occasioned by this statute 
that, in the year 1618, Don Gabriel Cimbron presented a petition in 
the Cortes to Philip the Third, praying for a modification of it. Gil 
Gonzalez Davila, Vida y hechos de Felipe III., lib. n. caps. 85, 86. 
In his history of this reign he shows the deplorable state of weakness 
o which Spain was then reduced. — Translator. 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



Spaniards, flushed with the victories they had gained 

during the whole of the sixteenth century, neither 

heeded the calamities which begun to harass these 

kingdoms, nor considered who was the sole author of 

them. In the seventeenth, these had increased to such 

an alarming extent, that all who were anxious that 

the Spanish peninsula should not be for ever merged 

in the lowest abyss of misery, saw the necessity of 

providing a remedy for them. But now it was all 

in vain. Literature and commerce were prostrate, 

nor could Spain make head by force of arms against 

all the calamities which had commenced showering 

down upon her, — in fact she had not hands in which 

to put them, much less vigorous ones to wield them. 

Thus all those lands and seigniories, in the vain 

attempt to preserve which so much blood had been 

spilled, so many lives sacrificed, and such large sums 

of money expended, (sums sufficient to enrich a nation 

and make it powerful,) were miserably lost ! 115 

Another evil which Ferdinand's policy bought upon 

Spain was the war with the Moriscos, who, no longer 

able to endure the oppression and misery to which they 

had been reduced, were continually rebelling. This 

115 Don Francisco Quevedo thus expresses himself in one of his 
sonnets : 

" If in a league all did combine 
To take from thee, O Spain, 
The lands which now thou callest thine, 
They'd with more ease regain 
Those very lands (which are their own), 
Than thou by boldest fight 
Would' st hold what only thine is shown 
By conquest's hateful right." 



198 HISTORY OF [BK. 

king, in order to get possession of Granada, granted the 
Moors the conditions they demanded prior to its sur- 
render. The principal of these were : 

" That their Highnesses and successors for ever 
should allow Abi Abdelihi, his alcaides, cadis, mestis, 
alguazils, captains, good men, and all his people, both 
great and small, to live according to their law, and 
should neither suffer them to be deprived of their 
mosques, towers, or almuedans, nor allow the income 
and rents derived therefrom to be touched, nor inter- 
fere with their present manners and customs. 

c< That no Moor or Mooress should be compelled to 
embrace Christianity against his or her will : that no 
maid, married woman, or widow, who from motives of 
love might wish to turn Christian, should be allowed to 
do so, until she had been examined. 

" That no person should be alloived to ill-treat by 
deed or word the Christian men or women who, before 
these capitulations, had become Moors ; and that if any 
Moor should have a renegade icife, she should not be 
compelled to turn Christian against her will, but shoidd 
be interrogated in presence of Christians and Moors; 
and the same thing should be understood to apply to the 
children, both male and female, born of a Christian 
woman and a Moor" 

Tn conclusion, the words with which the king and 
queen bound themselves to observe the capitulations to 
the letter are these : 

i( We promise and swear to you on our royal faith 
and word, that each of you may go out tq cultivate your 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



199 



estates, and pass wherever you choose in these our 
kingdoms, to seek a livelihood wherever it can be 
found: and we will command that vou be left in the 
same enjoyment of your laws and customs and of your 
mosques, that ye now are." 115 

But instead of ratifying these promises, Ferdinand 
the Catholic broke his royal word, which, as a Christian 
prince and a gentleman, he was bound to observe. It 
was one of the first objects of the clergy to try and 
bring home the truth of the Catholic faith to the Moors 
through the medium of preaching. 117 But as their 
preaching was not attended with the rapid success that 
was looked for, Cardinal Cisneros resorted to the arbi- 
trary measure of inquiring who were renegade Moors 
or children of renegades, for the purpose of employing 
compulsory means to make them embrace Christianity. 
And here it must be observed that this step was taken 
in direct violation of that article in the capitulations 
which said, " That no person should be allowed to ill- 
treat by deed or word the Christian men or women ivho, 
before these capitulations, had become Moors; and that 
if any Moor should have a renegade wife, she should not 
be compelled to turn Christian against her will, but 
should be interrogated in presence of Christians and 
Moors; and the same thing shoidd be understood to apply 
to the children, both male and female, born of a Christian 
woman and a Moor" 

116 Ltris Marmol de Carvajal. Historia de la Rebelion del reyno de 
Granada, lib. 1°, cap. xix. [fols. 22, 23, 24.— Translator.'] 

117 Ferreras, Synopsis Historica, ano 1499, sects. 9, 10. — Translator, 



200 HISTORY OF [BK. 

Thus did Ferdinand know how to fulfil his word : 
thus did he show his respect for the Gospel ! What 
might not the Moors say about his observance of treaties 
and the credit of his oaths ? The conquerors of Spain 
allowed the Christians who chose to remain and dwell 
among them (whence they were called Mozarabes) to 
live in the exercise of their religion and to have their 
temples. But the Christians, not considering that the 
breach of their sworn promises could be attended with 
no other result than the discredit of evangelical doc- 
trine, accepted in the articles of peace the condition 
which allowed the Mahometans to continue in the free 
enjoyment of their religion without oppression or moles- 
tation, and then deprived them of their temples, and 
forcibly compelled them to embrace Christianity. If 
Mahomet be reproachfully, though falsely, 118 charged 
with preaching his doctrines with the Koran in one 
hand and the sword in the other, what might not be 
said of the Christians by men whom they subjected 
to punishments, and on whom they forced another 
creed? 119 The Catholic Sovereigns, by their mode of 

118 Though I think it may be questioned whether Mahomet lite- 
rally preached his doctrines with the Koran in one hand and the 
sword in the other, there can be no doubt that he was a cruel perse- 
cutor. — Translator, 

119 Casiodoro de Reina, translator of the Bible into the Castilian 
tongue (Ferrara, 1555), says, "In order that the newly-converted 
Moors might be well instructed in the Christian religion, Friar Jerome, 
first Bishop of Granada, was of opinion that the Holy Scriptures 
should be translated into Arabic. This pious intent was opposed by 
Fray Ximenez de Cisneros, who gave reasons, not taken from the word 
of God nor from the words or deeds of the holy Doctors, but from 
mere human judgment, and consequently repugnant to that word : 



III.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



201 



procedure against the Jews and Moors^ acted neither 
more nor less than in direct opposition to the dictates 
of reason and justice ; thereby kindling hatred to the 
Christian faith in the greater part of the world, and 
opening the door to the destruction of the study of 
oriental literature, to the injury of all science 1 ' (as ap- 
peared in course of time in the seventeenth century), and 
depriving us of Spanish merchants, in order to supply 
us with Genoese, whose cupidity only served to swallow 
up all the gold of our country, as well as that which 
came to us from the Indies : and, finally, owing to their 
excessive oppressions, they bequeathed a civil war to 
Spain, and, by their expulsion of the Jews and Moors 
who refused to embrace Christianity, depopulated the 
kingdom. 

thus was the translation, which would have conferred so much 
benefit upon those poor ignorant Moriscos, put a stop to." 

120 The greater part of those men of eminence in Canon Law, The- 
ology, and the liberal sciences, whom Spain produced in the sixteenth 
century, pursued their principal studies at foreign Universities : 
among these persons may be numbered Melchoi Cano, Don Pedro 
Guerrero, Don Martin Perez de Ayala, Andres Laguna, &c. 



202 



HISTORY OF 



SUMMARY OF BOOK THE FOURTH. 

Chequered fortunes of the Jews in Portugal. — They begin to be 
oppressed there. — The new Christians of Portugal pardoned for 
their crimes of heresy and apostasy. — Jewish writers. — The Holy 
Office unable to eradicate Judaism from Spain. — Persons of note 
burnt to death for Judaizing. — Notice of some autos-de-fe against 
the Jews (or Judaizers) up to the year 1800. — Abolition of the 
tribunal. — Cessation of Judaism in Spain. 

BOOK THE FOURTH. 

The Jews, after their admission into Portugal, were 
no less unfortunate than the other exiles from Spain. 
In the year 1493, when king John the Second conferred 
the seigniory of St. Thomas's isle upon Don Alvaro de 
Caminha, he obliged the latter to people it, and. for 
this purpose, ordered that all the Jews should have their 
sons and daughters of tender age taken awav from them. 

O O.J* 

and that after the baptism of the latter, these should 
be handed over fas was done) to Don Alvaro for the 
purpose of peopling the said isle of St. Thomas. 1 

Orders were also issued by king Emanuel, in 1496, 
that all the Hebrews who dwelt in Portugal should 
quit that kingdom, save children under fourteen years 

1 Osorius. De rebus g est is Emanv.elis regis TortugaUie, lib. prim. 
Monteiro. Historia da Santa Inquisicao, parte I s , liv. seg°, cap. 2. 
— Translator. 



IV.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



203 



of age, who were to be left behind. The more wealthy 
Jews represented to the king that they would embrace 
Christianity without further opposition, provided he 
would do them the favour not to institute any inquiries 
against them for the space of twenty years ; and so, 
on the 30th of March 1497, king Emanuel accorded 
to them the privilege which they so earnestly solicited. 
On this many were baptized, and those who did not 
choose to become acquainted with the truths of the 
Christian faith, went to Africa and elsewhere. 2 

But this determination on the part of the Jews did 
not put an end to their misfortunes. In the month 
of April 1506, the people of Lisbon rose up against 
them, at the instigation of two Dominican friars, who 
exhibited an image of Christ crucified which emitted 
a very vivid light. A converted Jew observed that 
this miracle was nothing else than the reflection of 
the sun's rays upon a curtain, and as the news of 
this discovery began to spread all over the city, the 
friars, alarmed at the prospect of losing the alms and 
other offerings brought into their convent by the devo- 
tion of the people, in consequence of the virtue of 
that portentous image, stirred them up against the 
Hebrews. Numbers of this race were slain by the 
barbarous and superstitious rabble ; but as king Ema- 
nuel was much displeased at this tumult, he had several 

2 Ferreras, Synopsis Historica de Espafia, ano 1496. sect. 18. 
Osorius, lib. prim. Monteiro, parte l a liv seg°, cap. 43. This 
author accuses another writer of haying calumniously stated that 
Emanuel and his son John granted the Jews the privilege of ex- 
emption from examination as to matters of faith. — Translator. 



204 HISTORY OF [BK. 

of the authors and ringleaders apprehended, and ordered 
severe examples to be made of them. The two Dominican 
scoundrels who were the promoters of the sedition, were 
strangled ; and in order to punish the knavery of those 
men who, to make a gainful traffic in divine things, 
dared to deceive superstitious persons in so shameless 
a manner, the Dominican convent at Lisbon was 
suppressed. The same king, in 1507, renewed the 
privilege given to the baptized Jews, and it was after- 
wards confirmed by John the Third. And when the 
attempt to establish the Holy Office in Portugal was 
made, Pope Clement the Seventh was informed of 
all these exemptions. 3 

It is said that a letter was then written by some 
Jews who were settled in Rome and other cities of 
Italy to their brethren in the Lusitanian kingdom, 
recommending the latter to flee therefrom, and go 
with their families to the abovementioned land : this 
letter is given by several authors, among others Tor- 
rejoncillo, in his Centinela contra Judios. 

3 Ferreras, ano 1506, sects 33, 34. Osorius, lib. prim. Monteiro, 
parte la, liy. sego, caps. 43, 44. This writer says that the convent was 
suppressed for a few months only, namely from the 28th of May till 
the 24th of October, when it was restored by Pope Julius the Second. 
According to him, the tumult mentioned in the text was attended 
with most fearful consequences to the Jewish converts, of whom 
• 1930 (women included) were slain at Lisbon and in its neighbour- 
hood, and afterwards burnt in the Rocio (a large square) and in 
the Strand. His account of this tumult is thus given: "Andava 
o povo tao amotinado, que com furia diabolica, (segundo dizem 
algumas memorias) matarao no espaco de tres dias, em Lisboa e 
seu termo 1930 pessoas, assim de homens como de mulheres dos 
novamente convertidos. Os que matavao em Lisboa, os queimavao 
logo no Rocio e na Ribeira." 



IV.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 205 

" Your Honors 4 must surely be aware that the holy 
Father and Cardinals gave permission in the Eccle- 
siastical Court for an inquiry to be made in Portugal 
respecting the privileges granted by the kings of that 
realm, and determined that, if agreeable to the state, order 
might be given to the Bishops to take upon themselves 
the guardianship of the civil law ; than which nothing can 
be more reasonable or expedient : that prisoners should 
not receive pardon from the state, but that referees 
should decide their causes before the Bishops, in 
whose presence they might allege the illegality of 
the arrest of prisoners who had not relapsed, and 
might set forth the inconvenience resulting from the 
existence of so large a number of persons supported 
by begging, to whom the Bishops were objects of 
suspicion ; first, because from being Bishops, those 
men come to be Inquisitors, and secondly, because as 
ministers of the king, they are obliged to have an 
eye to his honor, and so condemn the prisoners, whose 
number favors the escape of some and makes the state 
hesitate to pardon others. The ambassadors of the 
King and the Emperor have, in concert with the holy 
Father and Cardinals, adopted a method which will 
serve as a key to our previous statements : they made 
a short cut and ordered that, for the future, general 
expediency should be disregarded ; whence to one 

4 In the original, Vuessas Mercedes: in the English versions of 
Don Quixote this expression is generally rendered Your Worships, 
but the translation of them that I have given is that which I believe 
to be the nearest approach to their real meaning. — Translator. 



206 HISTORY OF [BK. 

who looks beyond mere temporal things, it appears 
like inspiration to see that pardon is accorded to con- 
demned persons, whether under arrest or at large, 
whether absent or present ; that they are let go freely, 
unconditionally, and unpunished, and allowed to depart 
in peace whithersoever they will: that from the day 
of their release and the verification of their pardon 
till the expiration of six months, no inquiry into their 
offences may be instituted : that all persons in Portugal 
who wish to quit the realm may freely do so, without 
being arrested openly or secretly, and pass through 
bordering lands and countries with the safe conducts 
which will be given them; and when the six months 
are expired, as rigorous an inquisition into their lives 
is conceded as that which is now in force in Castile." 

" Your Honors may know and believe that Dr. 
Pedro Hurtado and his companion rendered much 
service to this cause, for which they deserve to be 
rewarded of God and of those who are His. The holy 
Father, like an upright man, seeing what were the 
wishes of the king's and emperor's ambassadors, granted 
a bull for Portugal as he had done for Castile, which, 
in compliance with the promises he had made to the 
Cardinals, and on account of his desire to get rid of the 
obligation he was under to them, and to have the 
business off his hands, was a severe one ; whereby it 
seemed to be entirely of God that these six months 
were granted by the king of Portugal to the Jews, in 
order to enable them to quit that realm freely, for 
which purpose they have a safe conduct provided them. 



IV.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 207 

We are well aware that men have reason to regret 
being separated from their native country, their wives, 
and their children. But they, and even those that 
have children, must expose themselves to every thing 
in exchange for their redemption from captivity, for 
there are many self-evident reasons why not a single 
individual of our nation should remain in Portugal, and 
refuse to come hither. The first of these reasons is, 
that God remembers us and sets us at liberty, as He 
did those who were in Egypt. The second (which 
ought to be remembered) is, that however innocent 
soever they be, they are liable to be put to death at 
Lisbon. The third is, that the king and ambassadors 
have determined to establish as rigorous an inquisition 
over them as that which is in force in Castile. The 
fourth is, their great rejoicings at the time of the exe- 
cution of the acts of faith, insomuch so that when they 
burn persons they have banquets, show themselves at 
the windows, and erect platforms as they would do on 
occasions of great festivals and bull-fights. The fifth 
is, that all persons of the envied race are so much dis- 
liked by the people ; of which a practical proof was 
exhibited in the unfavourable reports made of them 
in the Cortes. The sixth is, that when they arrest a 
man, they deprive him of his estate, as is the custom 
in Castile, and allow him but two maravedis a day for 
his support. The seventh is, that, notwithstanding men's 
innocence of the crimes imputed to them ; in order to 
escape punishment, they confess their guilt and sue for 
mercy : whereby they forfeit the possession of their 



208 HISTORY OF [BK, 

children and estates, and go begging from door to door 
for the love of God/ and if the persons of whom they 
beg be householders they demand of them their estates, 
for they find their own to be legally forfeited, as hap- 
pened in Castile not long since, when judgment was 
given against one Labaredas. Let your Honors con- 
sider these and other things, of which it is needless to 
remind you : and since God is pleased, of His mercy, 
to remember this people, it becomes you not to show 
yourselves ungrateful for it, but to escape from so many 
discomforts, and to be thankful for such goodness as this 
which He showeth you in providing you with a port to 
escape from the power of your enemies : those who are 
allowed the privilege of quitting that kingdom and come 
with their wives, will do well to escape from their 
present oppression, and have reason to regret not having 
done so before. Now since you have the opportunity, 
have the sense to avail yourselves of it and come ; for 
this country is rich, fertile, and extensive — a country 
in which you may live and enjoy yourselves. It 
is expedient that the poor should come in company 
with the rich and assist them in the management of 
their estates; for when the people went forth out of 
Egypt, both rich and poor escaped from the land. 
Blessed may he be considered that lendeth a helping 
hand and thereby diminisheth the severe fatigue of his 
relatives ! Let not the poor suppose that, owing to their 
poverty, they shall be in want of any thing, for all who 

5 A trade very extensively carried on in the present day by the 

Christians of Spain. — Translator. 



IV.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



209 



have hitherto come here, have soon after their arrival 
been richly supplied with all the necessaries of life, and 
filled with joy at having escaped, through God's hand, 
from their subjection and captivity. 

" Now, ye gentlemen of the envied race, who dwell 
yonder, we should be glad to know what entailed estates 
ye have, which can make it worth your while to abide 
so many hazards. We tell you that though ye lead the 
life of St. Augustine, this will be of no avail to you, ex- 
cept with God ; for should ye be accused before the peo^ 
pie, ye will assuredly be punished, your properties will 
be sold, your children will be degraded, and in order to 
punish you, the evidence of two witnesses will never be 
wanting ; nay, to obtain their freedom, your slaves will 
state things to have happened that never did happen. 
Since this is so evident, ye ought to rouse yourselves from 
your lethargy, to be watchful and to follow my counsel; 
for if ye do not, ye will deserve severe punishments, 
without being able to allege either reason or ignorance 
when called to account, which God forbid ; for God 
preserveth man in three ages, and even the last of these 
is good, and all of them are good. Wherefore, gentle- 
men, ye should all of you in general and each of you 
in particular take this into consideration, and should 
exert yourselves to comfort one another in your journey 
to this land of Italy ; for now is the time that the men 
are known who will liberate themselves from their 
present troubles (for ye are aware that ye have a sharp 
sword suspended over your heads by a single thread), 
and not when each man's offences are brought forward 



210 HISTORY OF [BK. 

(which God neither order nor permit !). Many of the 
envied race hare immoveable property in Portugal, 
which it will be painful to them to abandon and forfeit : 
others who must necessarily have goods scattered about 
in different places will not be able to collect them to- 
gether ; all these must do the best they can to eman- 
cipate themselves from such terrible misfortunes : for 
they who had immoveable property in Castile were 
punished as well as those who had much property lent 
out ; and as things present must be judged of by things 
past, let all whom it may concern look to their own 
affairs and beware of trusting to bulls of protection, tor 
in such times as these, those bulls will avail them 
nothing, for I well recollect a man being hanged at 
Lisbon with the privileges suspended from his neck : 
I remember also that as Count Benavente was killing 
a man who had the kin^s own roval security or 
privilege, he said to Ferdinand : 6 1 would sooner have 
taken from him some good cuirasses/ Wherefore let 
ail beware of God's wrath, when they begin to do 
execution (which God forbid l) 3 and no blame ought to 
be imputed to them for procuring the establishment of 
an inquisition in their country like to that in Castile : 
for the king's heart is in the hands of God. who is 
served in all that he doeth. 

" Let the persons who come bring with them all 
things needful for their support, and they had better 
bring all that they do not immediately require in bills 
of exchange on Lyons, Venice and other towns in Italy. 
Let the bills be drawn on two persons in whom ye can 



IV.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



211 



place the greatest confidence, and let it be expressed in 
them that each of the two persons is bound for the 
whole amount of the bills drawn upon him, and that the 
payment of so many golden crusados or escudos is to 
be made in gold ; for should it be merely stated that 
the payment of so many crusados is to be made, this 
expression will imply payment in coins worth only 
336 maravedis apiece; whereas the crusados and 
escudos go for 320, and the golden crusado is worth 
368 maravedis. I say that some well-disposed men 
should come over land to France, Lyons, and Gerona, 
for the security of the bills they may bring; and let 
those who bring merchandise come to Flanders, France, 
and Genoa ; and should they go in that direction, the 
Arragonese 6 ships are fine vessels and have good crews. 
Persons who go by La Pulla expose themselves to 
danger, and the safest way is through France, Antwerp, 
Genoa, and Civita-Vecchia, near Rome ; further in- 
formation can be obtained there. Blessed be He that 
ordereth the times and maketh the firmament above ; 
and cursed be every one of my nation who shall not 
listen to my counsel and act upon it ; and if he refuse 
to leaye that kingdom for a place of safety, upon him 
and all who are disobedient, as well as upon their wives 
and children, and upon all the people of this nation, 
may the following curses fall, and fall so heavily that 
when they die they cannot be buried in a double tomb. 
Cursed be the hour of your birth. May every hour 

6 No part of the present province of Arragon extends to the sea, 
"but the ancient kingdom of that name inchided Yalencia. — Translator. 

P 2 



212 HISTORY OF [BK. 

of your lives be sad and defiled with the red blood of 
the calf which your fathers worshipped. May ye ex- 
perience dreadful grief of your own creation and un- 
mixed sorrow; may the scab be upon you, upon all 
your race, and upon your children. May every thing 
in the world run counter to your prosperity. God 
smite you with the plague wherewith He slew those 
who left the swine's flesh in Egypt. Such calamity 
enter into your gates, that ye and your families may rise 
in the morning crippled like the sister of Moses. May 
ye be stoned like those who were discovered gathering 
wood on the sabbath-day. May fire break out in your 
houses and burn you, as it broke out in the tent of 
Korah and burnt him and his company. May ye and 
all your descendants be ashamed and go down to hell 
together, like Dathan and Abiron, The curse of mount 
Gilboa be upon you and all your posterity. May ye 
be burnt like those who would have stoned Moses and 
Aaron. May ye fall into the hands of justice, as did 
the Israelites. May serpents breed in your houses to 
bite you as they bit those whom God punished for mur- 
muring against Him. May every house ye inhabit be 
accursed and excommunicate, and may stones fall upon 
you as ye enter them, as the walls of Jericho fell. 
May ye be robbed in the court of the Palace or in 
the house of India. Such misfortune befal you and 
your wives in the end of your dark days as befel 
the wife of the Levite in the city of Gibeon. May 
the hand of the Lord be uplifted against you to smite 
you in the extremities of your bodies, and may ye rot 



IV.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 213 

like the men of the cities of Gazor. Accursed and ex- 
communicate be all your race and all your children, and 
may your bodies be cast to the dogs, like that of the 
prophet in Selva. May evil come upon you, and may 
your heart be broken for some treasonable crime in 
which ye shall be detected, and may ye be hanged 
like Ahitophel, David's brother-in-law. May your 
toes be cut off, as were those of the men of the tribe 
of Judah. Cursed be ye, and may ye be slain by wild 
animals and savage beasts, as the captive youths whom 
Elisha cursed were slain by bears. May ye be sold in 
the lands of the Moors, as the Jews were sold in 
Egypt by Ptolemy. May ye be carried piecemeal 
out of your houses, as king Antiochus was by the 
priests of the temple. May ye be constrained to eat 
swine's flesh. May ye and your children be hanged 
by the neck, as the Jews were in the city of David, 
by command of Anteus. May ye be ignominiously 
hanged by the Queen's command, as Haman was by 
command of Esther, in accordance with the dream that 
he dreamed. May all I have said come upon you, 
if ye refuse to depart from that kingdom : accursed be 
ye all, as I say, while my house and those who live 
in it continue in freedom and peace, and in security 
from all mishaps, while we enjoy our good acquisitions 
in these extensive lands, which are lands of promise 
here, and which ye refuse to enjoy, and do not deserve 
to see." 

The new Christians of Portugal did not much ap- 
preciate the counsel given them in this letter, for 



214 HISTORY OF [BK. 

they continued to live in that kingdom : which shows 
that they were not so much persecuted there as was 
imagined: only they could not patiently endure that 
in cases of inquisition, the property of criminals should 
be confiscated ; and in order to repair the mischief 
resulting therefrom, in the year 1577 they made 
a composition with king Sebastian, paying him two 
hundred and twenty-five thousand ducats, in consi^ 
deration of which, they obtained security from him 
that for ten years they should not be molested in their 
possessions. 7 This point being settled, many of the 
Jews still living in seclusion in Spain, who had mira- 
culously escaped from the clutches of the Inquisition, 
went into Portugal, where they increased to a great 
extent. Others, unwilling to forsake their country, 
remained in Spain. Of both these Jewish clans, the 
number who cultivated the study of literature was 
great. 

In the solemn auto de fe celebrated at Seville on 
the 14th 8 of April, 1660, eighty persons (men and 
women included) were punished for judaizing. Many 
effigies, representing criminals in exile in foreign lands 
(which, fortunately, the barbarous scourge of the Inqui- 
sition did not reach), were reduced to ashes. One of 
these exiles was Captain Enrique Enriquez de Paz> 
better known by the name of Antonio Henriquez 

1 Gil Gonzalez Davila, Vida y hechos del rey Felipe III. lib. n., 
cap. 16. — Translator. 

8 Lloreixte says the thirteenth ; cap. xlviii., ano 1660 : in the 26th, 
chapter, speaking of this auto de fe, he only mentions two or three 
persons who were punished.— Translator* 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



215 



Gomez, a resident at Seville, knight of the order of 
San Miguel, and son of another Portugese judaizer, 
named Diego Henriquez Villanueva. 

It is reported of this man that, once when he was 
at Amsterdam, he chanced to meet a Spanish friend 
of his lately arrived in that country, and on the latter 
saying to him, Oh ! sehor Enriquez, I saw your effigy 
burnt at Seville? he immediately burst out laughing 
and answered, / do not care a jig for that. d 

Antonio Enriquez Gomez wrote some works in 
prose and verse, 10 of which the best known is El 
sigh Pitagorico y vida de Don Greg or io de Guadaha : 
this book is written with extreme grace and elegance, 
though in very flowery language. Pie also composed 
several comedies of mediocre merit, among which may 
be reckoned, La prudente Abigail, A lo que obliga el 
honor, Amor con vista y cor dura, Contra el amor ?io 
hay engahos, &c. 

[The author proceeds to give an account of several 
Jeioish poets, with specimens of whose poetry 
he fills ten or twelve pages, which I shall not 
inflict upon the reader. — Translator^ 

9 The expression in the original is alia me las den todas : literally 
translated, it will not make sense, but I have given its meaning 
according to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy. — Trans- 
lator. 

10 La culpa del primer peregrino, Roham, 1644, Madrid, 1735, a 
poetical work. Luis dado de Dios a Luis y Anna, y Samuel dado de 
Dios a Llcana y Anna, Paris, 1645, in prose. PolUica angelica,* 
Roham, 1647, in prose. La torrede Babilonia,* Roham, 1649, Madrid, 
1670, in prose. Academias morales de las Musas,* Madrid, 1660, Bar- 
celona, 1704, a poetical work. [* These three works are not men- 
tioned in Don Jose Rodriguez de Castro's Bibl. de los Rab. Esp.— - 
Translator.] 



316 HISTORY OF [BK. 

Great is the number of Spanish Jews who wrote 
works on jurisprudence, philosophy, morality, mathe- 
matics, and medicine, besides translations of the Old 
Testament, and Commentaries upon it. 

Among the eminent physicians of the Jewish per- 
suasion there was a noted one in the sixteenth century, 
named Juan Rodrigo, a native of Castelo Branco, who 
from fear of the Inquisition fled to a free country, 
where he published several works ; some of them 
under the name of Amato Lusitano, others under that 
of Juan Rodriguez de Castel Blanco. The aim of his 
writings was to give instructions for the preservation 
or restoration of human health. 11 

Just at this time lived Cristoval Acosta, 12 a native of 
Africa, whose parents were J ews expelled from Spain : 
this man, after many years' pilgrimage in Asia, came 
to the Peninsula, professed Christianity, and settled 
in the city of Burgos, where he published a work en- 
tituled, Tratado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias 
orientales con sus plantas dibujadas al vivo por Cristoval 
Acosta, medico y cirujano que las vio ocularmente. Tin 
tomo en 4do. 1578. (Treatise on the drugs and medicines 
of the East Indies, with the plants that produce them, 
drawn to the life, by Cristoval Acosta, physician and 

11 " Amati Lusitani primum exegemata, cum nomine Roderici de 
Castillo Albo, in duos priores libros Dioscoridis, Antuerpige pro- 
dierunt anno 1536. " Albert Haller, Bibliotheca Botanica, lib. i., 
cap. 36. Jose Rodriguez de Castro, in his Bib. de los Rab. Esp. 
says he died at Thessalonica. — Translator. 

12 This famous physician and surgeon is not mentioned by Don 
Jose Rodriguez de Castro, in his Biblioteca de los Rabines Espanoles. 



IV.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



217 



surgeon, who saw them with his own eyes. One volume 
4to. 1578). 

The first person who wrote the medicinal history 
of the East Indies was the Portuguese doctor, Garcia 
de Orta : this work he committed to the press at Goa, 
and gave it the following title : Coloqaios dos simples, 
drogas, e cousas medicinais da India, (Colloquies on 
the simples, drugs, and medicinal things of India). 13 

Though this work possesses considerable merit, not 
merely from being the first of its kind, but also because 
it proceeds from the pen of so learned a man as Garcia 
de Orta, it is disfigured by many serious errors. Let 
us hear what Gaspar Acosta says of these Colloquies, 
in the preface to his treatise on the drugs and medicines 
of the East Indies. 

" As this work of his treats of divers medicines, 
plants, and other things pertaining to human health, 
so does it introduce much useless and irrelevant matter ; 
for in this treatise he was obliged to adopt the form 
of dialogues, in which the speakers are wont to amuse 
themselves and wander from the main subject, and at 

13 Anibal Brigand translated these Coloqaios into Italian, and had 
them printed at Venice in 1582. Carolus Clusins put them into 
Latin for the use of the Germans, and Antoine Collin into French 
for the benefit of his countrymen. Other foreign writers have made 
long and excellent commentaries on this work. Albert Haller, speak- 
ing of the author of it in the first volume of his Bibliotheca Botanica 
[lib.Y., cap. 314], says, Garcias ab Orta primus glaciem j regit ipsamque 
naturam vidit. [Clusius's work bears this title : Aromatum et sim- 
plicium medicamentorum apud Indos nascentiam historia, primum qui- 
dem Lusitanica lingua (SmXoyi/caJs conscripta a D, Garqia ab Horto. 
— Translator.] 



218 



HISTORY OF 



every step we meet with numerous errors : the good 
fame and credit of the author will not allow us to 
attribute these to him, but to the carelessness of the 
printers at Goa, where he wrote and where printers are 
not so expert as in these parts : still these errors do not 
fail to annoy and disgust the reader. This work had 
another serious defect, viz. the omission of the paintings 
and drawings of the plants ; this was owing to Dr. Orta 
having been occupied with graver matters which were 
of more importance to him. Thinking that this book 
might be of great use to our nation, were the good 
things contained in it pointed out and demonstrated by 
illustrations and figures for the better understanding 
of them ; persuaded too that this could only be done 
by an experienced eyewitness of the plants ; and zea- 
lous for the good of my country, and moved thereto 
by the love which I owe to my neighbours ; I deter- 
mined on executing this task, and on making exact 
drawings of each plant, taken from its original root, 
as well as of many other things which I have seen. 5 ' 14 

So then if Garcia de Orta be deserving of great 
credit for having been the first to make known in 
his vulgar tongue the medicinal history of the vast 
territory of the East Indies, Gaspar de Acosta deserves 
no less credit for having added thereto and corrected 
it, as well as for having represented in small drawings 

14 Carolus Clusius's book is illustrated with, beautiful engravings, 
which. Nicolas Antonio says were not copied from Acosta' s work. 

Clusius stirpium. iconismos a Costa editos, ut ineptos, pmrsusque 
dissimiles, rejecit" Bibliotheca Hjspana. — Translator , 



IV.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN". 219 

the greater part of the plants, of which, in the course 
of his treatise, he demonstrated those virtues, excellent 
qualities, and properties, which render them beneficial 
to human health. 

Licentiate Juan de Costa, Professor in the Univer- 
sity of Salamanca, was in the habit of saying, that after 
a careful comparison of both books, he came to know 
that Orta onhj drew the outlines, and that Acosta filled 
in the vivid colours, for what the former had begun 
the latter completed" 

The same licentiate, a friend of the author, likewise 
observes that this work ' • was not, like any other, 
prepared in the quiet of his native country, but during 
a sad and bitter captivity, which Acosta had to endure 
in Africa, Asia, and China. One may well conceive 
the pains it cost him while there, to make trials and 
experiments upon. all the plants and drugs about which 
he has written. 5515 

He not only made his own observations, and con- 
sulted all the Greek, Latin, and Arabic authors who 
have treated on the subject, but in his wanderings 
through the Indies communicated upon it with the 
best and most distinguished Arab, Persian, Turkish, 
Brahminical, Chinese, and Malay physicians, not to 

15 Nicolas Antonio speaks thus of Acosta : " Christophorus Da 
Costa .... Africana et Asiatica longi temporis peregrinatione, multis- 
que experimentis, etiam inter barbaras illius orbis gentes in cap- 
tivitate, et aerumnis manens, medicam artem et botanicam, quibus 
sese addixerat, egregie promovit scribens (mutuatus tamen magnam 
partem a Garcia de Orta, quod nec ipse dissimulat)." Bib a . Hisp., 
under word Christophorus, — Translator ^ 



220 HISTORY OF [BK. 

mention those of other countries who lived in that 
age. 16 

Thus was he enabled to write his work with so 
much effect, and to call it a true representation and 
likeness of many medicinal plants unknown and unseen 
hy any ancient writers who have handled this subject. 

When Acosta committed this treatise to the press, 
he was engaged in the composition of a longer and 
more elaborate one, which was to give a full description 
of the principal herbs, plants, fruits, birds, and animals, 
terrestrial as well as aquatic, that are found in the East 
Indies, of which, up to that time, drawings had not 
been taken, and of which, till then, very little had 
been written by physicians and philosophers. But, to 
the extreme regret of the literati, either Acosta was 
overtaken by death ere he completed his task, or if 
he did accomplish it, his work has not yet come to 
light. 17 

Cristoval Acosta's book was afterwards translated 
into Italian 18 with this title i Notice of the Drugs of 
India, and published at Venice in 1585. It was like- 
wise translated into French by Antoine Collin. 

16 "Horti Malabarici 800 Tabulse supra mille stirpium figuras 
continent, et CoromandeliaB medicis multo majorem in, re herbaria 
diligentiam inesse demonstrant, quam vel in Graecis fuerit, vel 
demum ante Clusium et Gesnerum in Europseis." Albert Haller's 
Bibliotheca Botanica, lib. i. cap. I.— Translator. 

17 See Nicolas Antonio's Bib. Hisp., under word Christophortjs. 
—-Translator. 

18 By Francisco Zeletti : its Italian title is Trattato Di Christo* 
phoro Acosta, Africano, Medico et Chirurgo. I have not seen Antoine 
Collin's work.— Translator. 



IT.] 



THE JEWS m SPAIN. 



221 



The Spanish Jews not only practised medicine with 
so much benefit to the human race, but devoted them- 
selves to the study of history as well. One of these 
was Pedro Teixeira, 19 who published a book with this 
title : Pedro Teixeira : De el origen, descenclencia y 
sucesion de los reyes de Persia y Harmuz, y de tin viage 
hecho par el mismo autor dende la India hasta Italia 
por tierra. Amberes 1610. (Pedro Teixera's account 
of the origin, descent, and succession of the kings of 
Persia and Harmuz, and of an overland journey from 
Italy to India, taken by the same author. Antwerp, 
1610). 20 

The best historical account of Persia that has been 
written will be found in this work : it is based on 
Persian manuscripts, and particularly the Chronicler 
Tarik 21 Mirkond's narrative. Teixeira was, perhaps, 
the only author who introduced foreign names into 

19 The author is mistaken : in the Preface to his History (p. iii.) 
Teixeira says that he wrote the first book of it in Portuguese, which 
was his mother-tongue (mi lengua materna Portugueza), but was 
recommended by his friends to publish it in Spanish, and that, fol- 
lowing the advice given him, he translated it into that language, in 
which he also wrote the second book of his history. — Translator. 

20 "When Don Jose Rodriguez de Castro formed his Biblioteca de 
los Rabinos Esparioles, he had not Teixera's work before him, for he 
gives no further account of him than this : "Pedro Teireira: he is 
thus cited by Barrios, in the 5 8th page of his Pielacion de los poetas 
Espanoles — Pedro Teireira translated the history of the kings of Persia 
from Persian into Spanish-, he wrote an account of his journey from 
India to Italy, and died at Verona.' ' [In Spanish handwriting, the 
letters r and x are very much alike. — Translator.] 

21 This word should have been omitted : Teixeira says in his 
Preface (p. iv.) that Tarik means a chronicle, and that Tarik Mirkond 
signifies Mirkond's Chronicle. — Translator. 



222 HISTORY OF [BK. 

the Castilian language just as they were written and 
pronounced [in their own] ; a thing which other Spanish 
historians have not done. His reasons for doing so 
are. the following: "Proper names, whether of men 
or places or of anything else, may strike you as being 
harsh and difficult to be pronounced : I might easily 
have accommodated them to our vernacular tongue, 
but preferred putting them in their own characters 
because of the confusion which is usually produced by 
altering them ; for if writers or translators of histories 
had always adopted the plan of describing persons and 
countries as described in their own language, and 
had not altered their orthography, we should have much 
less difficulty than we now experience in understanding 
who those persons were, and what those countries are. 5522 
But bidding adieu to my notices of eminent Jewish 
writers, it is time to enter upon the examination of 
a question which has not yet been treated of by any 
of those who have employed their pens to narrate 
the acts of the Holy Office. The Inquisition was 
established 23 for the purpose of eradicating Judaism ; 
but Judaism maintained its ground till the Inquisition 
Was abolished. This assertion, which has not yet been 
made by any author, may require to be confirmed by 
strong proof: this I am about to produce for the pur- 
pose of undeceiving many who still believe they see in 
this barbarous tribunal the bulwark of the Catholic 
faith, whereas in reality it has been a mere fortress 

22 Fourth, page of his Preface. — Translator. 

23 Nominally. — Translator. 



IV. J THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 223 

(alcazar) of fanaticism — an upholder of error, instead of 
a strong arm to repress it. After the Inquisition had 
been established at Seville forty years, the number of 
persons burnt in that Archbishopric alone exceeded 
four thousand, and in Andalusia alone the number of 
persons reconciled 14 and expatriated was above a hundred 
thousand. 25 At this time more than five thousand houses 
were shut up : their occupants (either destroyed by 
fire, or compelled by forfeiture of property to depart, 
or else driven by fear into foreign lands.) were ex- 
terminated by the fury of the Holy Office. To these 
destructive acts perpetrated by the tribunal at Seville, 
let those be added which were done by the other 
tribunals of Spain. In the year 1501, at a single act 
(auto) sixty-seven women were reduced to ashes at 
Toledo for judaizing. 

It is not my intention to give a detailed narrative of 
the autos-de-fe directed against the Jews by the Phari- 
saical Inquisition in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and 
eighteenth centuries, for besides the difficulty of such 
an undertaking, I should weary the reader : I shall 
therefore content mvself with relating those autos at 
which certain persons of note went forth to meet their 
fate, or certain individuals, in defiance of the tribu- 
nals wrath, persisted unto death in adhering to their 
law. 

24 Reconciliation : " Absolution from censures incurred by a here- 
tic tvL.0 confesses and repents." Llorente's Glossary of terms peculiar 
to the Hcly Ofrice. — Translator. 

25 Bernaldez, cap. ±4:. Paramo, De Sanct, Inquis. lib. n. [tit. ii-.. 
cap . 3 . — Tra its la tor.] 



224 



HISTORY OF 



In the report of the auto-de-fe celebrated at Mexico 
in the year 1549; we read the following statement 
respecting the execution of several judaizing criminals : 
" Thirteen victims in person were relaxed 26 and cast 
into the burning-place ; all of whom, through mercy, 
were strangled before they were burnt, except Tomas 
Trebiiio de Sobremonte, in consequence of his insolent 
rebellion and the diabolical fury with which (even 
though he began to feel in his beard, before he was 
placed on the scaffold, the fire that awaited him,) he 
burst forth into execrable blasphemies, 27 and drew the 
blazing faggots towards him with his feet. In the same 
fire they also consumed the bones of seventy persons 
together with their effigies, besides those corresponding 
to ten fugitives. 5 ' 27 

Licentiate Juan Paez de Valenzuela, author of the 
account of the general auto-de-fe celebrated in the city 
of Cordova in the year 1625, speaks in the following 
terms of Manuel Lopez, one of the relaxed i " Though 
all possible means and all particular pains were taken 
to bring him to the knowledge of the truth, they were 
ineffectual. On asking him whether he had resolved 
at last to renounce his obstinacy, he answered that he 
was travelling on the road of truth, that all other roads 

26 In the Holy Office lingo, persons condemned by the Inquisitors 
and then handed over to the secular arm in order to be burnt, were 
relaxed. — Translator .] 

27 If a man died while his trial was pending in the court of the 
Inquisition, and after his death he were condemned by that tribunal, 
his body was exhumed and burnt, as well as his effigy ; when a 
fugitive was condemned, he was merely burnt in effigy. — Translator, 



nr.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 225 

were wrongs and that he sought the salvation of his soul, 
which was secured to him by that law of his. After he 
had been admitted to frequent audiences before the 
Council, which was composed of numerous lawyers and 
learned qualifiers 28 of this Holy Office, who endeavoured 
to remove his errors and bring him to acknowledge the 
truth, he all along persevered in his stubborn obstinacy, 
and asserted that the law which he obeyed was the law 
of truth which ought to be observed. Continuing in 
his obstinacy and obduracy, he was sentenced to relax- 
ation and handed over to the arm of the Royal Justice 
to be burnt alive. It was about nine o'clock at night, 
when the Royal Justice had got ready the executioner, 
alguazils, ministers, criers, and beasts, on which they 
mounted the relaxed and led them out of the city to 
a spot appointed for the burning-place, called El Mar- 
ruhial ; this is a level plain, on which was erected a 
marble gallows, near which were five boards, with a 
ring attached to one of them, and a great heap of faggots 
ready. On their arrival at the place, they applied the 
garrote 29 to the three women and the aforesaid Antonio 
Lopez ; and as soon as the strangling of these persons 
was accomplished, they piled up the faggots, to which 
they set fire and cast into the flames one by one the 

28 " Theologians appointed by the tribunal of the Inquisition to 
examine books and propositions." Dictionary of the Royal Spanish 
Academy. — Translator. 

23 " An iron instrument applied to the throats of criminals, by 
which they are strangled." Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Aca? 
demy. — Translator. 

Q 



226 HISTORY OF [BK. 

effigies of the relaxed, in the names of the persons 
whom those effigies represented. When this was done, 
they placed the said pertinacious Manuel Lopez on the 
board with the ring attached to it, and commenced 
burning it whilst he : was alive. Before they lighted 
the part on which he was standing, all the Dominican, 
Franciscan, Carmelite, Trinitarian, and Jesuitical monks 
who had accompanied him and the others, took singular 
pains and showed much affection in their endeavours to 
convert him ; and as this was impossible — for the tears 
and entreaties of his parents who had just been burnt, 
and who had more than once this day attempted, with 
apparent sincerity, to effect his conversion, were of no 
avail — they kindled the fire more fiercely, though with- 
out eliciting from him the slightest token of contrition. 
Such was the subjection to which the devil had reduced 
his soul and body, and such his obstinacy, inflexibility, 
and obduracy ! though, in consequence of this, the fire 
in its wrath got such a powerful hold on his body as to 
leave him and the others who were burnt with him 
reduced to a cinder ; and such was the concourse of 
people that had come out to witness this doleful spec- 
tacle, that, although the site was a spacious plain, neither 
coaches, horses, nor human beings could move ! It is 
well worthy of notice, for the confusion of these and all 
other Jews, 30 that a Franciscan monk having, before 
Manuel Lopez's head was put inside the ring, proposed 
to him some strong reasons why he should acknowledge 

80 A 'sensible man would read Inquisitors instead of Jeics. — Trans- 
mor. 



IV.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN* 2.27 

our Lord Jesus Christ and renounce his errors, he 
answered him 31 — 

* * * * * * 5? 

These were the fruits which the Inquisitors reaped 
of the barbarous punishments inflicted on the persons 
of judaizers, and of their attempts to convert them to 
the Christian faith, at the moment when they were 
going to be reduced to ashes for not embracing it. 
Hence it appears that the judges of the Holy Office 
surpassed in cruelty the heathen in the times of Nero : 
for the latter never required of the Christians whom 
he put to death that they should turn pagans at their 
dying hour. 

Don Jose de Pellicer, in his notices (avisos) of xlugust 
the 2nd, 1644, says, " An act was kept by the Inquisition 
at Valladolid, and among those who suffered punishment 
was one Don Francisco de Vera, son of Don Lope de 
Vera, a knight of St. Clement and a man very respect^ 
ably connected ; his accuser was his own brother : he 
had been six years in prison. They burnt him alive 
for denying the Messiah's advent and other articles of 
the faith, though in point of birth and lineage he 
wanted nothing to make him an old Christian. He 
interpreted the Bible in his own w r ay ; it was impossible 
for him to be converted, and he finally died, impenitent 
and obstinate, in the law of Moses." 

In the notices of August the 9th, in the same year, 
we likewise read these words : " They tell many tales 
about that unfortunate wretch who was burnt alive 

31 The words omitted are grossly blasphemous. — Translator. 

Q 2 



228 HISTOTtY or [bk. 

for judaizing at the auto of Valladolid, and declare 
that he was nicknamed Judas the Believer" 

There were many criminals who courageously defied 
the wrath of their judges, for whom they showed su- 
preme contempt and even derided them, and went so 
far as to scoff at all the ceremonies performed at the 
autos-de-fe. In the report of the act celebrated at 
Mexico in the year 1569, we read these words: "Fran- 
cisco Lopez de Aponte, a most contumacious and ma- 
licious atheist, while on the platform resembled a devil 
emitting sparks from his eyes, and beforehand gave 
signs of his eternal condemnation. When they carried 
him from the half-moon or steps to the centre of the 
theatre to hear his sentence, he walked with a haughty 
air, and instead of standing up on the raised platform, 
as he ought to have done whilst his sentence was 
reading, he soon sat down. When he returned to 
the half-moon, mocking the confessors who assisted 
the other condemned persons (for this horrid fellow 
refused to accept their services and remained alone 
by himself), he said, What think ye, fathers ? hate not 
I played my part well ?" 

Not only did the Jews ridicule these mitre-and- 
cassock-executioners, but also made signs to each other 
to keep firm in their adherence to their law, and endure 
with courage the death and martyrdom which awaited 
them. In the narrative before cited, the following 
statement is made : es Diego Diaz, whilst on the stage, 
absolutely declared himself to be a Jew, and both he 
and the two culprits Aponte and Botello kept on 



IV.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



229 



making signs, as if animating each other to die in their 
own lame faith : on being reproved by one of the friars 
who attended upon him, he (Diego Diaz) replied, 
' Well, father , is it not right tve should exhort each 
other to die for GodT However, on being answered 
that, as a Jew, he did not die for God, but rather in 
disgrace with and under offence to Him, he became 
totally hardened, refusing any longer to hold the holy 
cross in his hand." 

In this manner did they act now that all other 
means of communication were denied them ; for as 
the cruelty of the Inquisitors surpassed that of Dio- 
cletian, Nero, and those other Emperors who were 
the scourge of Christianity, they did not allow the 
criminals to get a sight of each other till the hour of 
punishment had arrived, nor did they at any time 
suffer them to speak to each other. The tyrants of 
Rome did not hinder the martvrs from communicating; 
with each other, either in prison or on their way to 
the scaffold, or at the time of their execution; but 
they were heathen emperors, while these were judges 
of the Holy Office of the Inquisition and divines 1 
Husbands were not even informed of the arrest of 
their wives till the hour of the auto-de-fe had come, 
and even then, all they could do was to glance a 
parting farewell at each other, for they were forbidden 
to do so in words by those monsters of cruelty, un- 
worthy to bear the title of men, much more of priests — 
those monsters fiercer than cannibals, who, not obeying 
the letter of the Gospel which they did not understand, 



230 HISTORY OF [BK. 

but shielded with theological texts which they inter- 
preted as they chose, had stifled in their hearts every 
feeling of humanity, and were more worthy of belong- 
ing to the rank of beasts than of men ; and I am not 
disposed to class them with all beasts, for the lion is 
a noble animal, whilst in them appeared only the desire 
to satiate themselves with human blood and the brutal 
ferocity of tigers and hyenas! 

In the afore-cited narrative of the auto-de-fe cele- 
brated at Mexico in the year 1659, we read the 
following words : " Francisco Botello behaved so shame- 
fully on the stage, that when one, of the confessors who 
attempted to convert him from Judaism, begged him 
to consider whether he were in heart a Jew, for his 
wife was also there and had been put to penance, he 
lifted up his eyes to behold her with as much joy and 
gladness as if it had been the happiest day of his 
life, and made great exertions to speak to her; but 
this object he was unable to attain, for they removed 
him two steps lower down." 

How many judaizers did not then endure with 
the greatest fortitude the horrible deaths appointed 
them by the Inquisitors ! At the third of those four 
autos-de-fe celebrated at Majorca in 1691, in which 
thirty-four criminals, after being strangled, were com- 
mitted to the flames, three persons were burnt alive 
for being impenitent Jews : their names were Eafael 
Tails, Rafael Terongi, and Catalina Terongi. " On 
seeing the flames near them," says the author of the 
report, "they began to show the greatest fury., strug^ 



IV.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



231 



gling to free themselves from the ring to which they 
were bound, which Terongi at length effected, although 
he could no longer hold himself upright, and fell side- 
long into the fire. Catalina, as soon as the flames 
began to encircle her, screamed out repeatedly for 
them to withdraw her from thence, although uniformly 
persisting in her refusal to invoke the name of Jesus: 
on the flames touching Yalls, he covered himself, 
resisted, and struggled as long as he was able. Being 
fat, he took fire in such a manner that, before the flames 
had entwined around him, his flesh burnt like a fire- 
brand, and bursting in the middle, his entrails fell 
out." 32 

Not only did the unhappy Jews undergo that most 
fearful death appointed them by those cannibals who 
styled themselves priests of God, 33 but oftentimes did 
they cast themselves into the flames, in order that they 
might the sooner enter upon a happier state of exist- 
ence. Jose del Olmo, seeing that some criminals cast 
themselves into the fire, and knowing how detrimental 
to the Inquisition, or at least to Christianity, the cruelty 
of the judges of the Holy Office had been, sets down 
these words in his narrative of the general auto-de-fe 
celebrated at Madrid on the 30th of June, 1691 : " It 
may be objected by some incautious man that such and 
such persons threw themselves into the flames — just 

32 Francisco Garau. La fe triunfante en cuatro autos celebrados 
en Mallorca, el ano de 1691. 

33 Mr. Ford styles the first Inquisitor Torqnemada, not inappro- 
priately, the first priest of Moloch. — Translator, 



232 HISTORY OF [BK. 

as if true courage and the senseless brutality exhibited 
in a culpable waste of life, to be followed by eternal 
damnation, were identical/ 5 As Olmo knew that those 
who died so heroically were regarded as martyrs, he 
anticipates the arguments of the Jews with this logic : 
"It is not their death but the cause for which they 
die that makes men martyrs, and error is frequently 
known to imitate the achievements of truth." 

Notwithstanding all that has been written by the 
fanatical Olmo to please the gentlemen of the Inqui- 
sition, whenever I reflect upon the constancy of the 
Spanish Jews in not abandoning their law, in spite 
of the wrath of the Holy Office, and the courage with 
which they died when discovered and brought to 
punishment, I call to mind the words written by Lu- 
cifer, Bishop of Cagliari, in the fourth century of the 
Church, to the Emperor Constantius, in the name of 
all the other persecuted Christians. 

" Welcome the raging billows and violent whirl- 
winds to buffet us at thy bidding. We shall con- 
tinue always more and more unmoveable ; and far from 
foundering in the storm, the greater the dangers that 
surround us, the more freely shall we breathe ; for 
the Christian does not easily yield to wickedness, and 
degrade himself by that weakness which follows its 
commission; on the contrary, in proportion to the 
attempts made by tyrants to debase him, does he 
manifest the greatness of his soul. Persecution is on 
the increase ; the glory of Jesus Christ's soldiers in- 
creases equally; and far from being driven from the 



IV.] 



THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 



233 



palaestra by the application of tortures, those very 
tortures make us fly to the encounter with additional 
agility. That this is true thyself wilt confess, when 
thou seest us appear in defence of the faith in all 
parts of the empire with like intrepidity, neither 
deceived by thy detestable blandishments, nor terrified 
by thy threats, nor overcome by the cruelty of thy 
tortures — seeing that we are strengthened by the 
Lord who hath promised to be with us till the end 
of the world. 

" Now seeing that we are covered with the shield of 
Jesus Christ, clad with the mail of His holiness, and 
guided by His Spirit ; moreover, keeping ourselves 
inflexible in our resistance to any suggestion which may 
be offered with the view of inducing us to forget our 
dignity, we shall adhere to the course we have hitherto 
pursued. We are sensible to pain, it is true, when our 
bodies are tortured ; but we also show by our example 
that no violence can compel the wise man, in violation 
of his honor, to recede from his opinion and fixed 
determination ; and that it is highly advantageous to one 
to suffer for God, who is the truth itself. As for other 
matters, I care not whether thou orderest me to die by 
the driving of a nail into my head, impalest me alive, 
crucifiest me, roastest me by a slow fire, castest me down 
from a rock, or drownest me in the depths of the sea. 
Nor do I care whether my carcase becomes food for the 
birds and wild dogs, nor whether in thy sight and for 
thy cruel pleasure the wild beasts tear it in pieces and 
devour it, leaving nothing but the bare bones ; for in 



234 HTSTORY OF "l--X. 

the end I shall find safety and appear unhurt in the 
presence of God.' 534 

Expressions similar to these were uttered by the 
unhappy Hebrews when they were persecuted by those 
wicked Christians. And let not those silly persons who 
still defend that odious tribunal, by the rule of con- 
traries styled Holy, presume to say that cruelty cannot 
fairly be imputed to its judges, because that after they 
had condemned a heretic, they declared him no longer 
subject to their jurisdiction, inasmuch as by his crime 
he had rendered himself amenable to the civil power, 
and that when they handed him over to it, they did 
not ask to have his life taken away. This proceeding 
of the judges of the Inquisition reveals the thorough 
hypocrisy of their character ; for when they delivered 
up the criminal to the secular arm, they acted like the 
Jewish priests who, though the real authors of our 
Saviour's death, answered Pontius Pilate, when he 
ursred them to judge Him according to their law, that 
it teas not lawful for them to put ariy man to death! 
Hence we gather that, in wickedness and perversity.. 
Inquisitors and Pharisees were very much alike. 35 

34 This and the preceding paragraph are a mere analysis of a few 
passages from Lucifer's letter, which nils thirty-six pages of larger 
paper than this and in smaller type. The letter contains arguments 
against Arianism and religious persecutions ; it is written with the 
boldness (would I could also add the meekness !) of a martyr. See 
29th volume of the Collectio Ecclesia Patrwn, Paris, 1842. — Tra?is- 
lator. 

35 I was travelling four vears ago from Santiago de Com- 
postella to La Coruna, and as I sat with the diligence driver, heard 
him call out in a drawling tone to an unruly mule, " ma-ch-o-o-o, 



IV.] 



THE JESSYS IN SPAIN. 



235 



Let all who imagine that persecutions are the 
only means of bringing back to the bosom of the 
Church those who have departed from her, take 
warning from the events that occurred in Spain in 
connexion with the tribunal of the Holy Office. 
In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries 
they did nothing else but arrest and punish judaizers, 
as appears from the numerous accounts of autos- 
de-fe printed in those times. Yet, in spite of all 
such severities, there were judaizers in Spain in the 
eighteenth century. On the 28th of October, 1703, 
Diego Lopez Duro, a native of Osuna, was burnt alive 
in the city of Seville at the age of twenty-six. In the 
same city also Fray Jose Diaz Pimienta was reduced to 
ashes in 1720 ; and at other autos, celebrated in that city 
in the same century, the bones of Don Diego de Avila 
(a native of Malaga, and resident and administrator- 
general of the royal revenues of Carmona), Don Diego 
de Espinosa (a native of Alhama, and resident of Cadiz, 
and principal excise-officer in that city), Francisco Diaz 

ma-ch-o-o-o, eres tan feo como la Inquisici-on" (He-mule, he-mule, 
thou art as ugly as the Inquisition!) As he was a man of a 
humorous disposition, I observed to him that the mule should be 
called " Inquisitor General;" to which he demurred, saying "that 
although the obstinacy of the animal was quite equal to that of an 
Inquisitor, he feared the mule was a heretic, and consequently 
that the comparison would not hold good:" on which I informed 
him that an Inquisitor- general had once been summoned to appear 
before the tribunal of the Holy Office and answer the charges brought 
against him. His scruples were at once removed, and he promised 
me that the next mule he bought should bear the name of Torquemada. — 
Translator. 



236 HISTORY OF [BK. 

de Espinosa (also a native of Alhama and resident and 
administrator of revenues at Cadiz), were burnt, as well 
as the bones or the persons of many unhappy prisoners 
punished for judaizing. 

So large was the number of the judaizers in the 
last century ! The multitudes of them who dwelt in 
Cordova and its vicinity were also punished by the 
Inquisition with extreme cruelty. At Valladolid the 
same attempts to eradicate Judaism were made, but 
without effect. Nearly three centuries had now elapsed 
since the establishment of the barbarous and iniquitous 
tribunal, and during that period it had constantly and 
with persevering obstinacy laboured to destroy the 
large bodies of Jews residing in these realms under the 
garb of true Christians. 

In the seventeenth century, notwithstanding so many 
punishments, certain infamous placards were affixed to 
the principal houses in some of the cities and towns 
with these words on them, Long live the law of Moses 
and death to that of Christy for all laws but the former 
are false. There was but one man who attempted to 
put a stop to these evils, and at the same time to restore 
the want of population which Spain had brought upon 
herself by her two expulsions of the Jews and Moors. 
This man was the Count Duke of Olivares. 

To gain his ends, he ordered several Jews, who 
were descendants of those that had been banished from 
Spain, to come from Thessalonica and other cities to 
deliberate with him and help to devise a plan for their 
own and their countrymen's return to these kingdoms 



IV.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 237 

and re-establishment in the same. With this object in 
view he tried to cut down the power of the Holy Office. 
The coming of these Jews and their stay at the court 35 
were much spoken against and opposed by the Council 
of the Inquisition as well as by the Council of State. 
But the Count-Duke, relying on his own powerful 
influence with the king, laughed at all their opposition. 

The Inquisitors now seeing that they were on the 
point of losing their power, as well as the property of 
so many unfortunate judaizers, which either was already 
or eventually would be confiscated, determined on re- 
presenting to Philip the Fourth the great injury which 
was now resulting to the integrity of the faith from the 
residence of those Jews at the Court. For this purpose 
Cardinal Santa Balbina, Inquisitor-general, appeared 
in the king's chamber and spoke to him with that bold 
zeal which the interests of himself and the rascals whom 
he had at his beck imperiously demanded. Philip the 
Fourth then remembered that he was son of Philip the 
Third, and grandson of Philip the Second, and allowing 
himself to be led by the arguments of the Inquisitor, 
he pledged his word that he would order the Count- 
Duke of Olivares to compel those Jews to retire, not 
merely from the Court, but also to depart from all his 
realms and seigniories. Thus were the good intentions 
of the favourite to repair the evils from which Spain 
was suffering for want of population, commerce, and 
wealth, frustrated ; and so rapidly did these evils increase 

36 It is very common in Spain to call Madrid the Court. — 
Translator. 



238 



HISTORY OF 



that they now began to threaten the downfal of this 
unfortunate and ever ill-governed monarchy. 

But what fruits did the King and Inquisitors reap 
of the constant persecutions raised against the ju- 
daizers ? None that were of any service to them, if we 
except the confiscations. These men only brought 
odium upon the doctrines of the Gospel, which did not 
authorize them to perpetrate such atrocious and in- 
human acts. If this be not the case, let the defenders 
of the Inquisition show us how many Christians there 
were in foreign kingdoms where Jews dwelt, and in 
which the tribunal of the Holy Office did not exist, 
that abjured their religion and conformed to the Mosaic 
law. In Spain, on the contrary, trie more autos-de-le. 
the more deaths and the more losses of caste 57 promoted 
by the Inquisitors, the more were the persons that 
judaized; and these individuals did not consist ex- 
clusively of persons belonging to the families of the 
punished, but of those also who were descended through 
all their branches from old Christians. Let Don Lope 
de Vera, who was burnt at Valladolid in 1644, and Fray 
Jose Diaz Pimienta, who suffered at Seville in 170-3, be 
adduced as instances of what I have just said. The 
judaizers, instead of deterring others by the example 
of their deaths, made new proselytes ; for multitudes 
who witnessed the stedfastness and courage with which 
those unfortunate men underwent the dreadful punish- 
ment of the bonfire, were convinced that God had 

3 " Infamias de linajes. — Translator . 



IV.] THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 239 

animated their hearts in that bitter and critical moment, 
and that, inasmuch as they obtained such a blessing as 
this from heaven, there could be no doubt whatever 
that they died in defence of the truth. Where- 
upon they canonized those men as martyrs, and them- 
selves abjured the Christian religion, and went over to 
the ranks of Judaism. And this is the reason why 
there were so many judaizers living in Spain in the 
fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth cen- 
turies, in defiance of the wrath of the Inquisition : 
which is a very clear proof that persecutions were 
the means of inciting many to follow the Mosaic rite ; 
for in foreign kingdoms no Christian ever thought of 
becoming a Jew, while in our own there were many 
who did so> and these, not persons in the lower ranks 
of life, but gentlemen and people highly distinguished 
in every department of literature. Even at the com- 
mencement of the present century, or rather in the 
year 1799, a man named Lorenzo Beltran was punished 
by the Inquisition of Seville for being a judaizing 
heretic. 

There were judaizers living in Spain till the time 
that the tribunal of the Holy Office was abolished 
in the war of independence, and though afterwards 
revived, it ceased to be a religious tribunal, but was 
converted into a political one ; in the prisons of which, 
persons who could not be charged with the commission 
of any crime, but whom the government considered it 
unsafe to allow to be at large, were confined for an 
indefinite period. 



240 HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN SPAIN. 

Let the innumerable narratives of autos-de-fe exist- 
ing in print and in manuscript from the fifteenth to 
the commencement of the present century be read, 
and by them it will be known how large was the 
number of judaizers then living in Spain. And then 
let it be seen what is the number of Christians who 
now forsake the Evangelical doctrine and embrace the 
Mosaic law : — this will show that the Inquisition, 
instead of destroying Judaism, was, through its bar- 
barous and inhuman punishments, the means of render- 
ing the Christian faith odious, and of inducing many 
persons of note, who were attracted by the example 
of the martyrs burnt in its flames, to go over to the 
ranks of Judaism. 



( 241 ) 



KECAPITULATION. 



A large number of the Jews who escaped from 
Jerusalem, when that city was destroyed by Titus, 
settled in Spain, where they lived unmolested. The 
ancient Spaniards, in the Council of Elliberis, began 
to issue decrees to their prejudice, but the invasion 
of Spain by the Goths hindered the enactment of 
decrees still more injurious to the Israelites. While 
the Goths continued in the Arian faith, the Jews 
lived free from oppression ; but as soon as the former 
were converted to Christianity, the unhappy Hebrews 
were cruelly persecuted by them. Every king and 
every council devised some new law against them 
more severe than any of those already existing. The 
fruit which the Goths reaped of their barbarous acts 
was the invasion of Spain by the Arabs and the over- 
throw of their empire. The Jews then assisted the 
conquerors with their arms, garrisoned the principal 
cities, and regained their liberty. 

As the Hebrews were not persecuted by the Arabs, 
the Christians suffered the former to live in peace 
in their territories. In those times flourished many 
learned Jews, particularly at Cordova. The Christians, 



242 



RECAPITULATION- 



as soon as they began to conquer cities, began also 
to oppress the Hebrews, and in proportion to the 
number of the cities they acquired, did they increase 
their oppressions of that race : and since many of the 
Christians owed large sums of money to the Jews, 
they excited the fanaticism of the people against them, 
thereby causing frequent tumults and murders. In 
dread of these calamities, many of them became Chris- 
tians, especially after the famous dispute of the Spanish 
Rabbins with Jeronimo de Santa Fe, in the presence 
of the Antipope Pedro de Luna. 

Ferdinand the Fifth, styled the Catholic, being 
engaged in wars, of which his revenues would not 
cover the expenses, decided on establishing the tribunal 
of the faith for the purpose of filling his treasury 
with the proceeds of the confiscations. 

He called upon several of the Jews to supply him 
with money to carry on the Granada war, and promised 
to pay them as soon as he should conquer that city. 
Instead of paying his debts, he ordered the Jews who 
refused to embrace Christianity to depart from Spain 
within the space of four months. 

In spite of its flames and of the robberies it com- 
mitted, the tribunal of the faith was unable to eradicate 
Judaism from Spain. Since the abolition of that tri- 
bunal, no Spaniard has abjured the Christian faith to 
embrace the Mosaic law. 



( 243 ) 



APPENDIX. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

Tlie following Instruction, written to Philip the Second 
by the illustrious Dr. Benito Arias Montano {the 
Spanish Jerome), a professed Monk of the order 
of Santiago in the Royal Convent of San Marcos 
de Leon, and one of the most distinguished of the 
Doctors who tcere present at the Council of Trent, 
is in manuscript, in the library of the Author of 
this History. 

INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES RESPECTING THE MANNER 
IN WHICH THE FATHERS OF THE COMPANY CON- 
DUCT THEMSELVES. 

That the order of the fathers of the Company in 
Christ's vineyard was planted by the work of the Holy 
Spirit, as a tree which was to produce both an antidote 
to the poison of heresy, and flowers of religious and 
Christian works, of such exquisite sweetness that their 
very fragrance might constrain sinners to abhor the 

R 2 



2-14 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



bad odour of their sins and walk in the good path of 
repentance, is clearly shown by the manner in which 
this plant was put into the ground by its first cul- 
tivator, St. Ignatius, of glorious memory ; and truly 
may I say it was watered with the charity of those 
first fathers who gave it life ; that it was cultivated 
according to its first planter's directions, and produced 
two branches, one of love towards God, the other of 
love towards our neighbour: and so, the fruits reaped 
in the good education of the young, in the conversion 
of souls and the increase of the Catholic faith, were 
abundant ; but the devil, who labours as hard to destroy 
and undo the works and designs of God as others strive 
to carry them out, took such advantage of the very 
greatness and increase of this order as, in a short time, 
to pervert the ends for which it was instituted ; for 
with as much subtilty as artifice, instead of those two 
first branches of charity (now nearly withered), he 
grafted in two others, one of self-conceit, the other 
of expediency, from which such injury is done to 
the Christian community as cannot, perhaps, be sur- 
passed ; — all which I purpose showing in the progress 
of this discourse, wherein I protest before God that 
I am not influenced by interest or passion, but simply 
by my zeal for the public good (to promote which 
I was sent into the world), and by my desire that 
when Christian princes become acquainted with their 
arts and devices, they may make such provision against 
them as they shall judge it to be most expedient for 
them to make. 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



245 



Now it must be known that when first this order 
of the fathers of the Company was instituted, efforts 
were made in many places to enlarge it, principally 
with the view to the education of children, a thing 
wanted in every city in the kingdom ; and thus in 
a few years this order, owing to the favour of several 
princes, spread wider and further than any other order 
in many. It was this aggrandisement, which ordinarily 
creates in our minds a change of habits, that aroused 
in the successors of St. Ignatius such love to the Com- 
pany, that, thinking their own to be more useful to the 
Church and more serviceable in the reformation of 
manners than all religious orders in the world, they 
determined among themselves to extend it with such 
art and industry, and to found upon it the true defence 
of Christianity and the real welfare of the Church, or 
(to use their own term) the sole patrimony of Christ. 

It now needed the acuteness of an Aristotle and the 
eloquence of a Cicero to explain the marvellous way, 
which from its novelty seems incredible to many, where- 
by these fathers extended their order ; but I shall con- 
tent myself with merely noting down some things, leav- 
ing a wide field open to other geniuses to form the 
opinion which may to them appear the most probable ; 
I shall therefore propound some points which may sup- 
ply the reader with a foundation on which to build his 
theories. 

I must premise that these fathers did not suppose 
that their order could acquire that pitch of preeminence 
to which they aspire, by mere teaching, preaching, and 



246 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



administering of the sacraments, or other like religious 
exercises ; for though they were at first (as I have al- 
ready stated) received with open arms and caressed by 
many, they observed in course of time that (either from 
dissatisfaction with them, or from other causes, what- 
ever they might be,) the affection and devotion of 
many had cooled ; wherefore, doubting whether their 
order, still almost in its infancy, had made its last 
effort and acquired its full preeminence, they devised 
other means for aggrandizing it. 

The first plan they adopted was to bring all other 
religious orders into bad odour with princes, and after- 
wards with as many others as they could, by showing 
up their imperfections, and then with good and dex- 
terous management they procured their own grandeur 
through the oppression and fall of other persons : by 
this means they have made themselves masters of 
many abbeys as well as the large revenues attached 
to them, of which, through their representations, they 
have deprived those religious communities to which 
they originally belonged. 

Their second plan was to meddle with matters of 
state, interesting and gaining over the majority of the 
Christian princes to their party by the most artificial 
and subtle method that ever was known ; of which, 
as it is difficult to dive into, so is it impossible to 
give a thorough explanation. 

They have constantly residing at Rome a General, 
to whom they all yield implicit obedience : this man 
makes choice of certain fathers who, from the assistance 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



247 



they continually render him, are called Assistants. 
There is at least one of these assistants to every 
nation, from which he derives his name and title : 
thus, one is called the Assistant of Spain, another the 
Assistant of France, a third the Assistant of Italy, or 
of any other province or kingdom. It is the business 
of each of these individuals to inform the father-general 
of all the political events that occur in that province 
or realm of which he is the assistant ; his information 
is derived from correspondents residing in the prin- 
cipal cities of that province or kingdom ; these corres- 
pondents, after acquainting themselves with the state, 
quality, nature, inclination, and intention of the princes, 
give notice, every post, to the assistants of all events 
that have recently taken place. These give informa- 
tion to the father- general, who calls all the assistants 
together and holds a council with them : they then 
anatomize the whole universe, setting forth the interests 
and designs of all the Christian princes : this done, they 
consult together upon all the matters of which they 
have been recently advised by their correspondents^ 
and, after examining them and balancing one thing 
against another, promptly decide on supporting the 
interests of one prince and opposing those of another, 
according as best suits their own convenience and 
private ends ; and as mere spectators of a game see 
better than the persons actually engaged in it what 
turn it is likely to take, so do these fathers, with the 
interests of all the princes before their eyes, know 
well how to observe conditions, time, and place, and 



M8 INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 

how to apply the means calculated to improve the 
affairs of a prince^ from whom they know they can 
obtain an advantage. 

I must observe, secondly, that it is downright 
wicked of monks, who have retired from the world for 
the special purpose of attending to the care of their 
own and their neighbours' souls, to meddle so much 
with affairs of state ; and that they should meddle 
with them with such objects as they have in view 
is a serious evil, which needs to be reformed, in con- 
sideration of the bad consequences that result from 
such conduct as theirs* 

These fathers confess a great part of the Catholic 
states, and, in order to get access to the higher classes, 
they refuse to admit poor people to their confession- 
aries, and very frequently confess princes themselves. 
By this means they easily fathom all the designs and 
resolutions of both princes and subjects, and imme- 
diately give information of them either to their general 
or their assistant at Rome. Now, with but a moderate 
share of caution, they will find out what injury they 
can do to this or that prince, when thereto moved 
by their own interest, which is the final object to 
which all their actions are directed. 

Now^ for the preservation of a state it follows as 
a natural and inseparable accident, that if this man 
be not watched, that man is necessarily ruined ; and 
it is on this account that princes are so very severe 
with those who discover their secrets and punish them 
as though they were their own and their country's 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



249 



enemies: on the other hand, when one prince under- 
stands and knows the intentions of another, he behaves 
with greater caution, and thus advances his own in- 
terests ; and this is the reason why ambassadors usually 
spend no slight sums of money on spies, and, for all 
that, are generally deceived in the accounts and in- 
formations given them : but the fathers of the Company, 
by means of the confessors and consultations holden 
with their correspondents who reside in all the prin- 
cipal cities of Christendom, and also by means of other 
dependents of theirs (of whom I shall speak by-and- 
by), are accurately and minutely informed of all the 
points discussed and determined in the most secret 
councils, and are almost as well as, if not better, ac- 
quainted than the princes themselves, with the state 
of their revenues, their expenditure, and even their 
designs ; and this knowledge is acquired at no heavier 
cost than the postage of their letters, which, according 
to the statements of the postmasters, amounts to sixty, 
seventy, and oftentimes a hundred escudos a post. 
Thus do they become acquainted with the concerns 
of princes, whose good qualities they underrate, and 
those whom they wish to make odious to other princes 
they deprive of their reputation, and, in a word, 
cause rebellions and outbreaks in the lands of those 
princes; which they have the more effectual means of 
doing owing to their knowledge of the inmost secrets 
of the hearts of the subjects, through the medium of 
confessions, whereby they can tell who is well-affected 
to the prince, and who is dissatisfied and displeased 



250 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



with him : thus, by the accounts of political affairs 
which they receive, they are easily enabled to sow 
discord among princes and raise suspicion and jealousy 
in their minds. So, by their acquaintance with the 
feelings of the subjects, they have no difficulty in 
raising tumults and setting the people at variance with 
their prince, and exciting in their minds a contempt 
for his person. This forces upon us the conclusion, 
that it is contrary to the interests of a state for the 
prince to confess (much less allow this to be done by 
any of his confidants, domestics, secretaries, councillors, 
or chief ministers,) to persons who endeavour to pry 
so eagerly into matters of state and employ their know- 
ledge of them as the key to obtain the favor of princes ; 
for in these days there is no lack of monks whose 
lives and whose learning are by no means inferior to 
what these fathers can boast of, and on whose ser- 
vices greater reliance can be placed ; for the persons 
of whom I speak neither understand nor attend to 
any thing else but the care of souls and of their 
monasteries. 

For the clearer understanding of what I have said 
and am about to say, it is well to know that there are 
four classes of Jesuits. The first consists of secular 
persons of both sexes, who are styled blind obedience ; 
for in all their actions they are ruled by the council of 
the Company, whose orders and mandates they are 
ready to obey. These are most frequently gentlemen 
and persons of rank, widows, citizens, and mercers ; of 
whom, as of fruitful plants, these fathers annually reap 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



251 



abundant fruits of gold and silver. To this belong 
those women commonly called teatinas, who are per- 
suaded by the fathers to contemn the world, and then 
those worthies get possession of their jewels, dresses, 
furniture, and finally, good fat incomes. 

The second class consists solely of men, some of 
whom are priests and some laymen, who, though they 
lead a secular life, and generally obtain pensions, 
dignities, and incomes of other kinds, have vowed to 
receive the habit of the Company whensoever the 
general may order them to take it ; hence they are 
called Jesuits in voto : the fathers make great use of 
their services to support the fabric of their monarchy, 
for they have these men stationed in all kingdoms 
and provinces, and about the courts of all princes and 
grandees, for the purpose of employing them in the 
manner that will be stated in the seventh paragraph 
after this. 

To the third class belong those who live in monas- 
teries, whether priests or laymen, and who, not having 
as yet professed, may be ejected from them at the will 
of the father-general, but cannot leave them of their 
own accord. As these persons neither hold offices nor 
employments worth mentioning, they usually pay a 
simple obedience to the orders of their superiors. 

The fourth class of Jesuits consists of the politicians, 
in whom the government of their order is vested : these 
are the persons who, when tempted by the devil with the 
same temptation to which Christ was subjected in the 
wilderness (Hcec omnia tibi dabo, 8fc.\ have accepted 



252 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



the conditions offered them, and now labour to make 
their order a perfect monarchy, which begins at Rome, 
to which city nearly all the affairs of Christendom are 
referred, and at which resides the head of these poli- 
ticians, who with a large body of the same order act as 
generals : these men, informed by their spies of all the 
more weighty and important matters discussed at the 
Court of Rome, after examining into them and first 
deciding what game it will best suit their own interests 
to play, take care to attend daily the houses of the 
cardinals, ambassadors, and prelates, before whom they 
adroitly introduce the subject which is under discussion 
or which they know will shortly be discussed, and re- 
present it to them in the light that they think the 
strongest, or in the form which they imagine will be most 
conducive to their own benefit — and, in general, they 
so alter the aspect of affairs as (according to their own 
expression) to make black appear white ; for the first 
accounts received, particularly when they come from 
religious persons, 1 usually make a strong impression 
on the minds of the hearers : hence it is that very im- 
portant negotiations respecting the affairs of princes 
and other exalted personages, when carried on at Rome 
through the medium of ambassadors, have often failed 
in meeting with the expected result, the council having 
been prejudiced by the interested statements of these 
fathers, who have contrived that discredit should be 
thrown upon the accounts given by the ambassadors 

1 That, is to say, members of religious orders or communities. — 
Translator. 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



253 



and other agents. Of this same artifice, which they 
employ at Eome with the prelates and cardinals, they 
avail themselves in their private conferences with other 
princes and the Jesuits of the second class, and so we 
may conclude that most of the negotiations in which 
Christendom is concerned pass through their hands, and 
none of them succeed save those to which these fathers 
raise no opposition. Great, indeed, is the cunning of 
these fathers, in fact it is almost impenetrable, and 
therefore cannot be made thoroughly manifest ; but any 
prince who takes warning from my observations may 
get a tolerably clear knowledge of it, as by them he 
will be enabled to reflect on things past and thereby 
understand the truth of my words, and by calling to 
mind their artful ways in the management of former 
transactions, he will discover much more than can be 
stated here. The fathers do not rest satisfied with em- 
ploying these secret artifices for the purpose of in- 
sinuating themselves into all secular matters, though 
they believe them to be the only means of acquiring 
their universal monarchy. The jurisdiction they desire 
to have they some years ago solicited of his Holiness 
Gregory the Thirteenth, whom they entreated to favor 
their views, representing to him and persuading him 
that it was for the good of the Church that they had 
made this application to him, and begging of him, when- 
ever he sent a legate or apostolical minister, to require 
that person to take some father of the Company with 
him as his companion or confidant, by whose counsel 
all the actions of such legate or apostolical minister 
were to be guided. 



254 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



It is by this contrivance, as well as by their acquain- 
tance with political affairs, that these fathers, or at least 
the leading members of their body, have gained the 
friendship of many spiritual and temporal princes, whom 
they have persuaded that they (the Jesuits) have said 
or done many things to their advantage. From this 
have resulted two serious evils : the first is that, abusing 
the friendship and goodness of princes, they have not 
hesitated to disgust many private families, both rich and 
noble, by usurping (if I may be allowed thus to express 
myself) the estates of widows, and causing the greatest 
misery to parents by bringing over to their profession 
the persons who appear to them the most clever of those 
that go to pursue their studies with them : and it often 
happens, when these students chance to prove ignorant 
or to become ill, that, under some fair pretext, the 
fathers turn them out of doors, but retain their property 
(for at the time of their profession they were compelled 
to make those fathers their heirs), while they utterly 
exclude the poor from their studies, in violation of the 
aforesaid St. Ignatius's orders, and in opposition to 
the intentions of the persons by whom revenues have 
been left to them for this express purpose, such bene- 
factors supposing that their bequests would be properly 
applied to the benefit of the community at large, and 
the public be the gainers thereby. 

The second evil is, that these fathers have a singularly 
artful way of proclaiming to the world what intimate 
friendship they have with princes, pourtraying it much 
greater than it really is, in order to make all the 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



255 



ministers of the latter friendly to themselves, and to 
force those ministers to urge their claims before them 
(the Jesuits) as a matter of favor and not of right ; 
nay, they have been known to boast publicly at Eome 
that it was in their power to make cardinals, nuncios, 
lieutenant-governors, and other officers ; and some of 
them have positively asserted that their general is more 
powerful than the Supreme Pontiff; and others have 
said that it is a better thing to belong to that order 
which can create cardinals than to be a cardinal : all 
these things have been said publicly by them ; in 
fact, there is no one familiarly acquainted with these 
fathers, to whom they have not made such or similar 
statements. 

Relying upon the effects of their political intrigues, 
they have the affrontery to say that they can raise up 
or cast down whomsoever they please, and, by using 
the cover or cloak of religion* they not unfrequently 
carry their point. When they recommend any one 
to a prince, they do not pick out the most meritorious 
person, but, on the contrary, more generally oppose 
the man who is such, when they know him to be a 
person in whom they cannot place the utmost con- 
fidence ; and they are in the constant habit of bringing 
forward men who are likely to be of use to themselves, 
without caring whether so-and-so be well-affected to the 
prince, whether he be a deserving man or capable of 
rendering a satisfactory account of the office or place 
of trust committed to him : hence it is that the prince 
is always living in a state of alarm, and the disposition 



256 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



of the people is manifested by discontent and out* 
breaks. 

As the boatswain, when he sees that he has a favoiv 
able opportunity/ gives a whistle to the galley-slaves, 
who pull hard all and speed the galley on, so do these 
fathers, with the general and assistants at Rome, during 
the quiet of the siesta, conclude that the appointment 
of some individual to this or that office or post of 
honour, will turn to their own account, and then the 
father-general advises the brethren who reside at other 
places ; on which the whole fraternity act with unar 
nimity, all of them pulling together and exerting them- 
selves to the utmost, nearly at the same moment, to 
obtain for their favourite the appointment they wish 
him to get. And very ungrateful would that individual 
be, who, while under such obligations to these fathers, 
should refu, e tp gratify, as well as assist them, when- 
soever they might need his services, with the same 
zeal as they had displayed in his behalf. And as this 
dependent or these dependents (for the Jesuit fathers 
have many such) are thus placed under greater obliga- 
tions to them than to the prince from whom they have 
received that office or dignity, so do they serve them 
with greater love and affection than the prince himself. 
Thus it is that these temporal sovereigns become em- 
bayed ; for supposing themselves to have found a faith- 
ful servant, they have, in reality, appointed a spy 
selected by those fathers, of whose services the latter 

2 Tiempo, which also signifies weather^ and may, perhaps, here be 
used in this sense. — Tra?islator, 



INSTRUCTION FOU PRINCES. 



257 



often avail themselves to the injury of the very prince 
who aggrandized their own nominee. I could produce 
clear examples in confirmation of all that I have hitherto 
advanced, though it is sufficiently confirmed by ex- 
perience and general opinion ; but that I may not 
excite too much odium against myself, I shall avoid 
descending to particular cases, concluding, as I do, 
that the probable reason why these fathers usually 
style their order a great monarchy, is because they 
imagine and believe that they have princes and min- 
isters under their thumb : indeed, it was but a short 
time ago that one of the gravest of these fathers, 
speaking in public in the name of his order to a Serene 
Highness, commenced his address with these arrogant 
words, which originated, no doubt, in his notions of 
their monarchy : Our Company has always had a good 
understanding xoiih your Serene Highness* 

These fathers strive, with all their might and main, 
to persuade the world it is owing to their countenance 
and support that all persons have been any wise 
favoured by a prince, and in this way they obtain more 
sway over the minds of the people than the princes 
themselves. Now this is a very serious evil; for it 
never can be beneficial to a state that monks so ambi- 
tious and so political should rule the minds of those 
ministers who can be guilty of treason or raise a com-' 
motion, whenever they have the inclination to do so : 
nor is it consistent with the security of a state that these 
fathers of the Company should be enabled (through the 
medium of ministers dependent upon them) to intro- 

s 



258 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



duce and place in the service of princes, in the capacity 
of councillors and secretaries, any of those Jesuits in 
voto, of whom I have previously spoken, and who 
afterwards get the prince to employ one of these 
fathers as his confessor or preacher ; and when they 
have succeeded in this, then all these men acting in 
concert serve as spies for the father-general, whom 
they furnish with a detailed account of every thing 
that is discussed, even in the most secret councils : 
thus are the intentions of the prince made known and 
his most important secrets discovered, while he is un- 
able to detect the delinquent, and generally allows his 
suspicions to fall on the most innocent. 

As subjects are, generally, by nature inclined to 
follow the example of their prince, so do these men 
who yield obedience to the father-general, on seeing 
that he pays the greatest attention to political affairs 
and thereby endeavours to aggrandize the Company, 
apply their minds to the same thing ; they make use 
of the prince's relations, from whom they try to get 
information respecting the state of his heart and to 
worm out his most secret designs, for the purpose 
of communicating every thing to the assistant of Rome 
or the father-general ; by this they hope to win his 
favor and obtain some office or post of honor which 
they would not have acquired by any other means, 
for it is not the practice of the fathers to confer offices 
and places of trust upon great men, but upon those 
whom they know to be well qualified to assist in raising 
the Company to that pitch of aggrandisement to which 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES, 



259 



they aspire, the acquisition of which tliey consider a 
sufficient ground for their interference in secular matters. 

Xow, as by working the still such water is distilled 
and drawn from various herbs as will have the effect 
of curing and healing a dangerous ulcer ; and as bees 
gather honey from different kinds of flowers ; so, from 
the punctual accounts which the fathers receive respect- 
ing the interests of all princes and all the events that 
occur in every state, do these men, by force of deduction, 
come to a conclusion as to what will help them to cure 
the almost incurable ulcer of desire to aggrandise them- 
selves. 3 and extract a certain knowledge which is of 
peculiar service to them, whereby, to the benefit of one 
and to the injury of another, but more frequently to the 
injury of the one than to the benefit of the other, thev 
gain their end. Besides this they are in the habit of 
keeping in suspense the hopes of princJes whose designs 
they have penetrated, telling them that they have taken 
measures to insure the success of their designs and the 
realisation of their hopes ; but when they have secured 
their own interest, considering that the excessive eleva- 
tion of those princes might, some day, prove prejudicial 
or hurtful to them, like lawyers with suits, they defer 
the business in hand, and, afterwards, with marvellous 

8 This sentence is not very clear ; this, however, I take to be the 
writer's meaning ; " Since the Jesuits aspire to a universal monarchv, 
they employ any means (however unscrupulous) which thev think 
calculated to assist them in gaining their object, supposing that if 
they succeed in obtaining it, all their desires will be satisfied, 
whereas they are ignorant of the insatiable nature of ambition."—* 
Translator % 

S2 



260 



INSTRUCTION FOR 



PRINCES. 



dexterity and artifice turning over a new leaf, totally 
undo and destroy the whole of the business which they 
had begun. 

The commencement and conclusion of the league of 
France by these fathers, and its subsequent abandon- 
ment and rejection by them when they saw that Henry 
the Fourth's affairs were in a more flourishing con- 
dition ; the gift of England so repeatedly made to the 
Spaniards by these fathers, and a hundred other similar 
cases, so fully confirm what I have advanced in this dis- 
course of mine, that no additional proof of my statement 
is necessary. 

From what has been said, it follows that the Company 
have not a good and right understanding with any prince 
spiritual or temporal, but make such use of him as suits 
their own convenience : on the other hand, it follows 
that no prince, much less any private gentleman, can 
rely on them ; for as these fathers show themselves 
equally well affected to all, becoming Spaniards to 
Spaniards, Frenchmen to Frenchmen, and acting in 
the same way towards persons of other nations, when 
occasion requires it ; they evidently have an eye to 
their own interests alone, and care not whether they 
injure this or that man : it is on this account that enter- 
prises and negotiations with which these fathers have 
mixed themselves up, have seldom been successful, for 
they have no mind to render any further help and 
assistance to any one than it is to their own advantage 
to afford ; and in this they are very cunning, for some 
of them pretend to be partizans of the Spanish crown, 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



261 



some of the French, some of the Emperor, and some of 
other princes whose countenance and support they de- 
sire to have. And when one of these princes makes 
a Jesuit his confidant, the latter writes to his general 
an account of the business which is to be discussed, 
and waits for an answer from that functionary, in 
order to see whether the instructions sent by him 
are in accordance with the will and intentions of 
the prince by whom the matter was entrusted to 
him ; for, provided the Company be served, little does 
he care for the interests of the prince. 

Besides this, as these fathers are acquainted with the 
interests of all princes and are informed of almost every- 
thing that is discussed in their most secret councils, those 
who pretend to be partizans or confidants of Spain pro- 
pose to the king and his chief ministers some very im- 
portant conditions and considerations of state that have 
been sent to them from Rome by some of those fathers 
that are styled politicians. The like conduct is observed 
in France by those who profess devotion and attachment 
to that crown, and the same rule applies to the rest of 
them ; hence it is that princes become so suspicious of 
each other that not one of them will trust another ; and 
this diffidence of theirs is in the highest degree pre- 
judicial to the tranquillity, the public peace, and the 
general welfare of Christendom, inasmuch as it raises 
obstacles to the conclusion of a league against the com- 
mon enemy, and renders it difficult to secure a lasting 
peace between Christian princes. 

It must be admitted that the eyes of the world have 



262 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



been so opened to their subtle discussions on matters of 
state, that now, to the great injury of the church, no 
other subjects are regarded or attended to : it is in these 
scales that every one weighs his actions, and the worst 
of all is that the heretics have learnt the tricks of these 
fathers, and are now employing them to the serious 
injury of us with those princes by whom they are 
protected; so that when these heretics first became 
somewhat acquainted with literature, from which it 
was hoped that they would one day learn the error 
of their ways, they have instead thereof become 
atheists and politicians whom it is next to impossible 
to convert, unless God miraculously interpose in their 
behalf. 

Here, in order to show the cunning of the Jesuits 
and their way of winning over to their side and catch- 
ing hold of princes, I must not omit to state, that some 
years ago a father assistant of England, named Per- 
sonio/ wrote a book against the king of Scotland's suc- 
cession to the throne of England, and another father, 
named Cristonio, 5 with others of the same order, in 
a printed book of theirs defended the king of Scotland's 
title to that crown, in opposition to the opinion of the 
said father Personio, with whom they pretended to dis- 

* The individual here called Personio was one Parsons or Persons : 
in 1594 he published, under the name of R. Doleman, A Conference 
about the next succession to the Crown of England* It is clear from the 
preface of this work that it was for the first time published in 1594. 
In the last paragraph but one of this Instruction^ Pope Urban the 
Seventh, who died in 1590, is spoken of as a person still living. Hence 
it follows that the Instruction is a forgery. — Translator. 

5 Chricton (:) a Scotch Jesuit.— Translator* 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



263 



agree, carrying on their controversy with particular art- 
fulness and with the concurrence of their general ; it 
being their object to gain access to the person that suc- 
ceeded to the crown, whoever he might be, and to find 
means through his assistance to aggrandize their order 
and benefit themselves : hence it is quite clear that 
princes are the object of all the actions and deter- 
minations of these fathers, and consequently their com- 
mon saying that their order is a great monarchy is 
verified. 

Though our experience of infinite cases that have 
happened proves as clear as the daylight that these 
fathers, in obliging or disobliging a prince, are actuated 
entirely by motives of self-interest, it will nevertheless 
appear from what I am about to state, that there is no 
person in the world whom they ought to obey more 
readily than the Supreme Pontiff, both out of regard 
to their being Christians themselves, and also out of 
respect to the solemn vow of obedience to him which 
they take : and yet, when the Supreme Pontiff Pius 
the Fifth (of whom it is impossible to speak too highly), 
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, desired to reform these 
fathers and compel them to act up to their professions, 
as other religious communities do, they would not obey 
him, because they thought that such obedience would 
be prejudicial to their interests ; on the contrary, some 
few who obeyed the Supreme Pontiff and made their pro- 
fessions were by the rest of the fathers contemptuously 
called Quintinos, and not one of these has hitherto suc- 
ceeded in obtaining a benefice. In like manner did 



264 



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they oppose the glorious St. Charles, Archbishop of 
Milan, who, as legate d latere of his Holiness, desired 
to bring them to a religious discipline. But are they 
who disobey the sacred canons less disobedient to his 
decrees ? — -they who make a gainful traffic in pearls, 
rubies, and diamonds brought from the Indies ? for it 
is an established fact, that most of the precious pearls 
sold at Venice belong to these fathers — a fact which has 
been ascertained from the brokers whom they have 
employed and do still employ. 

That these fathers do not obey the Supreme Pontiff 
is well known to some of their Company who were 
summoned from Rome and prosecuted on this account : 
but in order to avoid introducing the name of any prince 
to whom this treatise of mine may not be very accept- 
able, I shall withhold names and dwell no longer upon 
this topic. I am anxious to be of service to all men, 
and do not wish to offend any one, for it is not my 
design in this place to inveigh against these fathers 
(whom, in other respects, I regard and esteem), but 
only to give a brief account of their manners and 
customs. 

Now it occasionally happens, be it observed, that a 
person afflicted with a dangerous malady complains so 
piteously that his cry reaches the heavens, though he is 
ignorant of the origin and cause of his malady: thus 
does all the world complain of these fathers, one because 
he is persecuted by them, another because his confidence 
has been betrayed by them ; and the evil continues, 
while men are unable to discover and get at the root 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



265 



of it, namely the desire and intent of these fathers to 
aggrandize themselves ; out of respect for which desire 
they care not whether they displease this or that man 
the most, whether they deceive princes, whether by 
their cunning they deprive widows of their estates, 
whether they ruin noble families, or whether, as 
generally happens, they are the cause of those sus- 
picions and disgusts that arise between Christian 
princes, through their own determination to meddle 
and insinuate themselves into the principal negotiations 
that are carried on. Now, as in the economy of nature 
it would be very inconvenient that the part last formed 
should first attract and carry off purer blood than the 
vital parts of the frame for the purpose of serving as 
an instrument to the inferior parts, inasmuch as it 
would be exhausted thereby ; so is it a contradiction 
to the natural state of things that the order of these 
fathers, which was instituted in the Church for the 
purpose of eradicating heresies and bringing sinners 
to repentance, should attract and bring over to itself 
the most weighty and the most important concerns of 
princes and prelates, withdrawing thereby the vital 
spirits of their interests and appropriating them all to 
themselves : for by this means public as well as private 
peace is interrupted, and many persons worthy of pro- 
motion are passed over, while others who ought to be 
passed over are promoted, to say nothing of a thou- 
sand other inconveniences resulting therefrom. 

I might adduce numerous instances from experience 
to show how great is the ambition of these fathers to 



266 



INSTRUCTION FOIL PRINCES. 



aggrandize themselves, but shall content myself with 
proving them by the words of Personio, one of the 
gravest of these fathers, written in a book of his com- 
posed in English and entituled " The Reformation of 
England " b where, after having spoken very ill of Car- 
dinal Paul, a prelate who, as well for his exemplary 
virtue as for his services to the Church, deserves to be 
holden in everlasting remembrance ; and, after having 
noted certain defects and blemishes in the Council of 
Trent, he finally concluded that whensoever England 
should turn to the true Catholic faith, it would then be 
convenient to reduce her to the form and condition of 
the primitive Church, by putting all ecclesiastical pro- 
perty into a common fund, and entrusting the care and 
administration of it to seven sages that belong to the 
Company, to distribute them in such a way as should 
seem to them the most suitable : nor will he allow, nay, 
he forbids under heavy penalties, the return of any 
monk to England, of what order soever he be, without 
the licence of these fathers, with the design and purpose 
of preventing all but themselves from gaining a living 
by collecting alms. But as self-conceit blinds a man's 

5 "Next folio wes his Booke of Reformation, which, under Re- 
formation, was Father Parso?is Babell, that is, his Castle in the aire, 
wherein he prescribes Rules to all Estats : here you see, he is no 
changeling, the same man that he was before ; or rather grown more 
audacious and impudent, and wel he might, considering that these 
orders were begunne in their deepe lesuiticall Court of Parliament at 
Stix in Phlegeton, and suggested thence into Father Parsons sconce, 
being ended and compiled into a full and complete volume, by 
him and his Generally intituled, The High Court of Reformation for 
England." — Life of Father Parsons, by Thomas James, Oxford, 1612. 
— Translator . 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



287 



eyes, and, however wise he be, makes him do very 
unwise things, what this father goes on to state is 
thoroughly ridiculous. "Whenever England, says he, is 
reduced to the true faith, it is not expedient that the 
Pope should, for five years at least, interfere with the 
titles or patronage of ecclesiastical benefices in that 
kingdom, but that every thing should be in the hands 
of those seven sages, who will bestow those benefices in 
such a manner as thev mav think most conducive to 
the interests of the Church, with the design and pur- 
pose of obtaining, after the expiration of the five years 
(through the medium of their devices of which they 
have an abundant stock), a prorogation of the same 
privilege for five years more, and of continuing the 
prorogation for such a length of time as eventually to 
exclude his Holiness from England. Who doth not 
now see pourtrayed, as in a picture, the covetousness 
and ambition of the Jesuits, and their eagerness to 
become monarchs ? who is not acquainted with the 
great cunning wherewith they advance their own in- 
terests, and knows not how little regard they have for 
the welfare or the misfortunes of all others besides I 

But in the time of Gregorv the Thirteenth thev 
begged and pressed him to give and invest them with 
all the parish churches at Eome, in order that their 
monarchy might commence in that city; and though 
they could not obtain this at Rome, they have obtained 
it in England, where of late they have had an arch- 
priest, a Jesuit in voto, elected ; who, instead of pro- 
tecting the clergy, hunts all the priests that are not 



268 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



dependents of his, like a rabid wolf, reducing them to 
a state of despair, and prohibiting them under heavy- 
penalties from conversing together ; so that now nearly 
all the English Clergy are Jesuits in voto, nor is any 
one admitted at the English Colleges that hath not 
previously promised to become a Jesuit. Thus, were 
that kingdom to return to the ancient and true faith, 
England would become a Jesuitical monarchy; for all 
the ecclesiastical revenues, all the abbeys, and all the 
other dignities would be conferred upon Jesuits. 

This is certain (and I say it with tears in my eyes) 
that very few heretics are now converted: this obser- 
vation applies with peculiar force to England, where, 
as I said before, not one of the old clergy, who did 
very good service, is left : this must be attributed to 
these fathers, who pay greater attention to, and care 
more about, their own interests than the souls of men ; 
besides which the heretics themselves know how the 
Jesuits oppress the Catholic priests and with what 
artifice they proceed, and hate them so mortally that 
numbers refuse to be converted, because they do not 
choose to be tyrannized over by those fathers. I here 
omit many things respecting their pretensions to other 
people's estates, which they show their eagerness to 
possess, as well as to aggrandize themselves ; I also 
omit a good deal about their way of gaining a prince's 
favor, by persuading him that they have the people at 
their disposal, and can make them well-affected to his 
person : and now leaving it to every one to consider 
whether what I have just said be clear and palpable, 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES, 



269 



I shall conclude this discourse with four brief ob- 
servations. 

Observation the first. — Men of such haughty spirit 
and of such high notions are always in want of changes 
and ever on the look out for them and bringing them 
about ; for it is by new commotions that they usually 
gain their ends, for which they open a way with the 
arms of their industry and their arts, in which we have 
seen them to be so well practised ; for to a prince who 
loves and is anxious for the peace and security of his 
dominions, these fathers not only cannot be of service, 
but may do him harm by causing tumults and placing 
his state in jeopardy, if, when he has any of them re- 
siding in it, he do not favor them, or, if when he 
favors them, he allow himself to be governed by their 
counsels. 

Observation the second. — If these fathers, who have 
no temporal jurisdiction, cause the world such frequent 
and such serious inquietude, what would be the con- 
sequence if one of them were elected Pope? Why, 
the first thing he would do would be to fill the College 
of Cardinals with men of his order, and perpetuate the 
Pontificate among its members ; on which they, governed 
by self-interest, protected and supported by the Pope, 
might endanger the states of many princes, particularly 
those of their nearest neighbours. 

Observation the third. — They would exert them- 
selves to the utmost to obtain from the Pope the grant 
of some city or of some temporal jurisdiction, which 
they would employ as a means to establish other claims 



270 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



which could not be maintained without injuring other 
princes. 

Observation the fourth. — As soon as the College 
should be remodelled and filled up by these fathers, 
all the patrimony of Christ would be in their hands; 
and as a dropsical man, the more he drinks the thirstier 
he becomes, so would these men, by increasing in covet- 
ousness in proportion to their increase in grandeur, be 
the cause of a thousand disturbances. And since there 
is nothing more subject to change than the affairs of 
states, these fathers are now striving harder than ever, 
and with all their might and main, and with all their 
cunning, to procure changes in order that they may be 
the better enabled to introduce their scheme of govern- 
ment: meanwhile they now go looking about for the 
eldest son of some prince, and try to bring him over 
to their order, and induce him to endow them with 
his dominions, — and they would actually have succeeded 
in this design of theirs, had not some persons got wind 
of their artful intentions and opposed them. In the 
case above mentioned, they would have had no difficulty 
in lording it over the ecclesiastical staff: and as they 
are sagacious men and know what they are about, they 
would attempt to set up a thousand claims for the 
purpose of extending their authority, and would not 
want means to gain their end ; and even supposing this 
were attended with no other result than the alarms and 
suspicions in which princes would live, and particularly 
those nearest to them, this would be an inconvenience 
of no trifling consideration. 



INSTRUCTION FOR PRINCES. 



271 



It is necessary for the preservation of the public 
peace and for the tranquillity of every prince's do- 
minions, for the increase of the Church and for the good 
of the worlds that his Holiness, Urban the Seventh, with 
the aid of other Christian princes, should put a bridle 
in the mouth of this Company, which now conducts 
itself in so disorderly a manner, provided we would not 
see the same thing happen to them that happened in 
olden time to those members of the family of Dabius 
(in whose steps these fathers appear to be treading), 
who were destroyed by the Emperor Claudius. 

When ordered to write and express my opinion 
respecting the best measure to be adopted for re- 
gulating the conduct of these fathers (without giving 
offence to them or injuring them, but, on the contrary, 
conferring upon them an important benefit, for I am 
anxious to make them monarch s of souls which are 
Christ's real treasure, and not of this world and of its 
concerns which are mere rubbish), I promise to do so 
with all charity and with all the ability which it shall 
please the Divine Majesty to give me. — Unum pro 
cunctis suffciat opus. 



Letter written from Antwerp to King Philip the Second, 
on the eighteenth of February, 1571, by Benito 
Arias Montano. 

To His Royal Catholic Majesty : 

Bound as a loyal servant by Christian simplicity and 
the tie of an affectionate service to all things pertaining 



ARIAS MONTANO'S LETTER 



to God and to your Majesty, and to your unfettered 
rule over the commonwealths subject to your Majesty; 
I, in consideration of this, declare that one of the 
commands which your Majesty should be particular 
in giving to the governor and ministers of those states 
and to their successors is, that they should not encumber 
themselves with any of the Teatinos, nor allow anv 
of those persons to meddle with politics; nor should 
they advance any of them to situations in those states 
to which any such authority or profit is annexed as 
will raise them above their present station, and your 
Majesty should give special orders that no governor 
employ any of them as his preacher or confessor ; for, 
before God and my conscience, I know that the governor 
does all he can do for the service of God and your 
Majesty, as well as for the free administration of good 
government in those states : and your Majesty may 
rest assured that there are few persons in Spain not 
belonging to the Company that have had more frequent 
opportunities of becoming acquainted with the aim and 
object, with the cleverness and the powerful influence 
the fathers exert to gain their point (I avoid speaking 
of private matters), than I have ; and my knowledge of 
these things is derived, not from one, but fifteen years 9 
acquaintance with the Jesuits. 

I have heard that the Duke of Alva was somewhat 
lukewarm about the claims they tried to establish in 
his time, and believe that he had lawsuits with some 
of them about matters pertaining to your Majesty's ser- 
vice, of which they bitterly complained (first in secret, 



TO PHILIP THE SECOND, 



273 



and afterwards openly), and now they triumph at the 
news of the new governor's appointment, and boast 
that they do and shall enjoy greater authority and 
higher privileges than they can even desire or demand ; 
for, to adopt their own language, he is a creature of 
theirs, and I hear that they intend to exert every 
means in their power to carry whatever they propose 
and approve. I determined, as in duty bound, to 
inform your Majesty of this in a private letter I sent 
by Gaztelu, who is ignorant of its contents ; for I am 
fully aware that they have spies btationed everywhere 
to inform them of all your affairs as well as other 
people's ; I also know how hostile they are to all 
persons invested with the slightest authority, when 
they chance to hear that those ministers have, against 
their (the Jesuits 5 ) will, had anything to do with your 
Majesty's affairs ; nor am I ignorant of the mischief 
which their secret hostility may do those persons. As 
the introduction of private matters in this letter would 
only tire your Majesty, whom it is my sole aim and 
object to please, I omit every thing calculated to offend 
your royal person and dignity. God grant your Ma- 
jesty a happy life, and prolong it many years for the 
glory of His holy name. — Antwerp, Feb. 18th. Your 
Majesty's chaplain and servant, Benito Monfano, kisses 
vour roval feet. 



T 



274 



NOTICES OF ARIAS MONTANO. 



Notices of Arias Montano. 

Now that we have seen the severe judgment passed 
on the Jesuits by Arias Montano, it will not be out 
of the way to transfer to this place a passage from 
a work not published 1 [till the end of the last century. — 
Translator] entituled, Memoirs of events relating to this 
Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo, from the laying of 
its first stone on the 23rd of April, 1563, when the 
first monks came to it, till its completion, and down 
to the year 1591, with the principal events that occurred 
in Spain and other countries in those times, written by 
Fray Juan de San Jeronimo, who was at the Escurial 
the whole time of its building, and was entrusted by 
Philip the Second with the account-book of all the ex- 
penses laid out on the works. Juan de San Jeronimo 
died in the year 1591. 

Patris Josephi de Sigiienza : Continuation of these 
Memoirs, down to the following year 1592, written by 
the same Sigiienza. 

" On the 1st of March, 1577, by command of our 
lord the King, Dr, Benedicto Arias Montano, Chaplain 
to His Majesty and prelate (comendador) of the order 
of Santiago, came to this monastery to inspect, expurge, 
and put in order the Royal Library of San Lorenzo, 
being a man well fitted for so important an undertaking 
and so high a trust. Now, these were the doctor's 
qualifications : in the first place, he was a learned clerk 

1 It was published in the library of the Rabbins by Jose Rod- 
riguez de Castro. 



NOTICES OF ARIAS MONTANO. 



275 



and a great divine ; he was familiar with all the sciences 
and deeply acquainted with the Hebrew, Chaldaic, 
Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, German, French, Flem- 
ish, Italian, Portuguese, and Castilian languages, all 
of which he knew and understood as well as if he 
had been brought up in the countries where they are 
spoken. This doctor was the person who, at the com- 
mand of His Majesty King Philip, our Lord, went to 
Flanders to superintend the printing of the Royal Bible 
of five languages at Antwerp by Plantinus the printer, 
as may be seen by referring to the book and the pre- 
faces he wrote to it while there. 

"This doctor was a native of Frejenal near Seville 2 : 
so abstemious was he that he only took one meal 
every twenty-four hours, and even then he did not 
eat meat or fish, but only vegetables and fruits and 
the liquor of the olla whether it were oil or gravy : 
he slept on hard boards, on which he laid a mat and 
a Bernia blanket: in humility he surpassed all who 
were acquainted with him : so affable was he that he 
made every one regard him with affection and love; 
the learned courted his friendship, and the gentry were 
edified by him; officers, architects, painters, and men 
of talent found something to learn of him : the said 
doctor was ten months at this house, expurging the 
library and making the Greek and Latin catalogues 

2 The author of these memoirs must have been wool-gathering 
when he wrote these words. Frejenal, though in Andalusia, is on 
the very borders of Estramadura, and not within a hundred miles of 
Seville ! — Translator, ] 



216 



NOTICES OF ARIAS MONTA1SO. 



in it : he divided the books into sixty-four classes, 
keeping the printed works separate from the manu- 
scripts : he ordered Roman statues and portraits of 
Supreme Pontiffs, Emperors, Kings, and learned per- 
sons to be placed in the library. 

At the beginning of September in the aforesaid 
year ? T9, 3 Dr. Arias Montano came to this house to 
inspect the library, by command of His Majesty, who 
assigned him the house of Santoyo for his residence." 4 

3 This should be '77, which is the year mentioned at the com- 
mencement of the last paragraph but one. The error appears to 
have escaped the notice of Don Adolfo de Castro, who has copied 
this document verbatim from the Biblioteca delos Rabinos Espaholes. 
— Translator.] 

4 Arias Montano died at Seville in 1598, aged 71. Notas lite- 
rarias de Pellicer, par 4to., printed in the Biblioteca de los Rabinos 
Esparioles. — Translator. 



THE END. 



PRINTED 



CAMBRIDGE: 
BY METCALFE AND PALMER. 



I 



